A former Salvation Army worker who provided welfare services at the Australian-run asylum seeker detention centre on Nauru says the situation of hopelessness at the camp was so bad he had to speak out.
Mark Isaacs has described his experience in his book, The Undesirables which was due for for publication next month, but has been rushed out by publisher in the wake of the chaotic riot at the Manus Island detention centre last month.
He worked on Nauru between October 2012 and June 2013 and says he found harrowing conditions at the centre with dozens of asylum seekers suffering mental breakdowns while in indefinite detention.
Isaacs was only 24 when, on the strength of a single phone call and with no experience, he was hired by the Salvos and sent to Nauru with less than a week’s notice to ”provide support” to asylum seekers detained there.
The title of the book is taken from a term Isaacs says a government staffer was overheard using to describe the asylum seekers at the camp.
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