Australia is located at the other end of the world, on the Pacific Ocean. The country is among Western countries who proclaim themselves to be advocates for freedom and decent treatment for all people. With these self-proclaimed values, it is shocking to discover these countries don’t practice what they preach.
The British international human rights group, Amnesty International, has made a damning revelation regarding Australia’s asylum system.
For reasons, best known to the Australian government, it has decided to process its asylum applications outside the country. The Australian government has contracted private companies, opening centers for people who are seeking asylum in Australia, offshore. The asylum seekers are directed to these centers, mostly located on islands situated around the Pacific Ocean, where they wait for their applications to be processed.
In 2015, a BBC radio documentary found that Australia was forcing asylum seekers to stay in neighboring Papua New Guinea. The documentary found that asylum seekers were subjected to gross human rights abuses, with many suffering severe health consequences. Other media outlets also followed it up with similar revelations. In August 2016, many human rights activists held public protests in Sydney, London and Tokyo to protest the government’s treatment of asylum seekers.
In a new report, Amnesty International has shed more light on the situation. Despite the pressure from activists, the Australian government has not changed its policy on its asylum system. As per Amnesty International, on the island of Nauru, a tiny country northeast of Australia, the Australian government has set up an offshore asylum application center, and what is occurring there is appalling.
Amnesty International titled the report “Island of Despair.” The report revealed a systematic denial of health services, coupled with physical abuse and legal and psychological intimidation carried out by staff and companies hired by the Australian government to oversee the asylum facility in Nauru.
The report particularly singled out children as the most vulnerable. The authors of the report revealed that the extent to which child refugees are subjected to abuse on Nauru is chilling. The authors said they saw many asylum seekers’ children falling into deep psychological distress and bad health.
Due to the bad treatment asylum seekers face on the island, many attempt suicides to end their suffering. It is said many of these asylum seekers are from poor Southeast Asian countries, where life is terrible. They take the risk by traveling on overcrowded boats, hoping to get a better life in Australia, but end up forced into camps away from the nation’s doorstep.
As per the report, residents of Nauru discriminate against the asylum seekers. This has led to a deep stigmatization and abuse against the asylum seekers, by local residents, and guards in charge of the facility. It is even said the tactics spread beyond abuse. For example, asylum seekers’ children are not attending the local school because they’re being bullied or harassed by teachers or local children. Amnesty said it documented several of these cases when it visited the island while putting together the report.
The authors wrote in the report that the refugee-processing system by Australia was “explicitly designed to inflict incalculable damage on hundreds of women, men and children. The conditions on Nauru – refugees’ severe mental anguish, the intentional nature of the system, and the fact that the goal of offshore processing is to intimidate or coerce people to achieve a specific outcome – amounts to torture.”
The report said the Nauru government isn’t to blame for the bad treatment against asylum seekers. Amnesty said all the blame should be laid at the doorsteps of the Australian government, because it is the government of Australia that set up the offshore processing system, and has forcibly transferred people who are seeking asylum, to Nauru.
The report revealed that Australian government officials and contractors in Nauru are involved with running the Refugee Processing Centre itself, and with the management of the refugee population living outside the center.
Amnesty said the Australian government cannot deny knowledge of these human rights infringements, because its workers have reported the appalling situation to the country’s authorities.
Melbourne #BringThemHere pic.twitter.com/Og1EVDsSYO
— Vigilante Wombat (@3wombats) August 27, 2016
Amnesty noted that the Australian government is fully aware of the situation in Nauru, and has been even trying to cover it up.
Senior director of research for Amnesty International, Anna Neistat told Fairfax Media in an interview: “It’s the intentional nature of it. The Australian government is not even hiding the fact that the key purpose of this policy is deterrence. When you set up a system that inflicts deliberate harm as deterrence, it’s really hard to find another name for it other than torture.”
It is said the government of Australia is spending $415 million Australian dollars annually on operations, including paying the Nauru government to host its offshore immigration problem. There is also an additional cost of about 35.3 million Australian tax dollars per year.
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If the Australian government is failing to take responsibility for changing the agenda and conditions, the world should encourage the Nauru government to cancel or at least NOT renew the contract to host these goings-on — and if it’s a financial situation for Nauru, I imagine some NGOs and governments could make it worth their while….
Hey mate,Australians will decide who comes to Australia! Not some grubby little Indonesian fisherman smuggling Immigrants on the side.We were having 20,000 arrivals per week before we STOPPED THE BOATS! Why should wealthy migrants buy their way in when legitimate refugees are waiting on a list.The illegal scum bags make it longer fro true asylum seekers.Focus on the WALL the UK is Building top keep out Islamic Terrorists mate not the 5 star hotels in Naru and Papua New Guinea.
the “illegal scumbags” you speak of are living, breathing, human beings. They face the high risk of dying before they even get to Australia, and yet they still risk their lives. Why do you think they would still take that risk and continue forward? What are they trying to get away from? Could it be that they are already suffering in their home land? Better to risk it all on the chance of a better life than to stay where they are and condemn themselves to the prison sentence of living in suffering. Then they decide to make that change, take that risk, and we as a 1st world nation, divert these people to offshore prison camps to suffer and wither away, out of the eye of the public. Yes the boats don’t arrive here anymore, and what has happened to the people who were motivated to travel on these boats? Do you stop caring because “they stopped the boats” and now your life can continue on as normal? Do you not feel any compassion for other human beings? Have you never known any form of suffering that you cannot empathize with those whose life is struggle and poverty? And what about the innocent children? This can all change, but we as a public need to will it to change, We have the advantage over impoverished nations, we should be helping these communities step up out of poverty and into abundance and freedom, and remember the luxuries we know in Australia now, were built on the sufferings and grit of our ancestors. Be grateful that you should be so lucky.