Mr Morrison said about 30 children who remained on Nauru would be left there unless they needed medical attention in Australia or they were resettled in the United States. Continue reading

MSF said it was informed on Friday 5 October by the Government of Nauru that it was no longer required and terminated its provision of mental health care services on the island.

They were given 24 hours to leave the country.

MSF says that all of its international staff have now left the island where they had been working since November 2017.

Barri Phatarfod, the founder and president of Australian organisation Doctors for Refugees, told the ABC's Pacific Beat program she was stunned by the Nauruan Government's move.

"It's incredibly dangerous and it's grossly irresponsible," she said.

"Nowhere in medicine do you ever see 24 hours to stop, [there is] no basis to have suddenly stopped midway through.

"The explanation is that mental health support is no longer required.

"It's clearly required; self-harm syndrome, life-threatening psychiatric disorders."

Psychiatrist Beth O'Connor, who had been stationed by MSF on Nauru for 11 months, said the refugees would find it difficult to receive the critical health care they needed.

Court-ordered medical evacuations of refugees from Nauru would be hampered by MSF's removal, she said.

"The process of both children and adults with mental and physical illnesses being transferred off Nauru is complicated," O'Connor said.

"There is a lack of independent opinions and that is problematic."

It has been speculated that the MSF practice of giving patients access to their files, some of which have become public, was the trigger for the Government's decision to evict the organisation.

MSF had provided its refugee patients with their medical records which had been used in court applications for evacuation, but O'Connor said MSF had no control over what patients did with their records.

Source

• abc.net.au
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: abc.net.au

Dr Koloamatangi said in the absence of criticism from Australia, whose offshore detainees are held on Nauru, New Zealand, the Forum and the UN should speak out.

He said the Forum's Biketawa Declaration expected members to abide by the rule of law, good governance, transparency and accountability.

"One would have to say that Nauru is not abiding by those values, and something has to be done," Dr Koloamatangi said.

"Now if Australia is not doing it, then I would think that New Zealand is the next in line, plus the Forum, should be exploring options about how to engage with Nauru."

The Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul hopes Pacific Islands Forum Leaders will draw attention to the plight of refugees when the Pacific Forum leaders meet there in September.

"It is a rare opportunity for international media to have access to Nauru," he said.

About 930 people including about 140 children were being held in the Detention Centre.

"It's an issue of Australia and the way in which Australia has tried to draw places like Papua New Guinea and Nauru into undermining the refugee convention," Rintoul said.

He said the situation should be a cause of some concern for the whole of the Pacific and Asia-Pacific region.

"So we are hoping it does get an airing,"

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: refuge action coalition

The Executive Committee of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands have issued a statement condemning what is happening to asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru.

"Callousness can never be the proper response to human tragedy."

"We applaud PNG's Supreme Court's decision that the Manus Island detention centre is unconstitutional and illegal and we trust the Australian and other authorities will act swiftly in implementing a humane plan of rehabilitation for the detainees."

The executive committee also:

• Congratulated and offered encouragement to the Governor of Port Moresby on the development of this city and his commitment to justice, integrity and service in civic leadership
• Expressed their satisfaction that The Papua New Guinea Government has recently passed a Bill agreeing to implement the strategies proposed by the Paris COP21 meeting about climate change and sustainable development.
• Expressed support for the West Papuan people's desire to participate fully in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG)

The Executive Committee of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania ( Australia, New Zealand, PNG/SI, CEPAC) is currently meeting in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

Source

• Supplied
• Image: Supplied

Most of them have been held there for three years. They routinely face neglect by health workers and other service providers who have been hired by the Australian government.

And, as well they suffer frequent unpunished assaults by local Nauruans.

They endure unnecessary delays and at times denial of medical care, even for life-threatening conditions. Many have dire mental health problems and suffer overwhelming despair—self-harm and suicide attempts are frequent. All face prolonged uncertainty about their future.

Refugees and asylum seekers interviewed said they have developed severe anxiety, inability to sleep, mood swings, prolonged depression, and short-term memory loss on the island.

Children have begun to wet their beds, suffered from nightmares, and engaged in disruptive and other troubling behaviour.

"Australia's policy of exiling asylum seekers who arrive by boat is cruel in the extreme," said Anna Neistat, Senior Director for Research at Amnesty International, who conducted the investigation on the island for the organization.

"Few other countries go to such lengths to deliberately inflict suffering on people seeking safety and freedom."

Michael Bochenek, Senior Counsel on Children's Rights at Human Rights Watch, conducted the investigation on the island for this organisation.

"Driving adult and even child refugees to the breaking point with sustained abuse appears to be one of Australia's aims on Nauru," he said

Amnesty International says Australian authorities are well aware of the abuses on Nauru.

The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a Senate Select Committee, and a government-appointed independent expert have each highlighted many of these practices, and called on the government to change them.

The Australian government's persistent failure to address abuses committed under its authority on Nauru strongly suggests that they are adopted or condoned as a matter of policy.

Source

• pacific.scoop.co.nz
• Image: michelleparsons.com

And the finding by the supreme court of Papua New Guinea that detention of asylum seekers on Manus Island is illegal, brings shame on us as a nation. As does our refusal to accept the offer made by New Zealand to settle some of those, like Omid and this young woman, who have been found to be refugees.

The stubborn and divisive repetition of slogans about tough border protection and deaths at sea fails to justify the bribing of our neighbours and deliberate destruction of the lives of those who have sought asylum here. It is long past time for a bipartisan solution.

I am a child psychiatrist. I have visited families held in detention on and offshore and have seen lives diminished and destroyed as a consequence. I have also worked in child protection and know how much we invest in supporting families, in protecting Australian children from exposure to violence and neglect and in reducing family and sexual violence. But these refugee children, these people seem to be different, not entirely dispensable but almost, used by successive governments as deterrence.

They are hostage to our brutal domestic politics, the children unable to gain the safety their parents sought for them, at risk, held in inadequate and harsh environments, with despairing, desperate and now dying adults.

Trauma and despair are contagious. At least one other refugee has set herself alight but Omid's death also affects those who knew and loved him, the children and adults who saw him burning, and those staff who were responsible for saving him in a situation where adequate emergency care was reportedly not available or was delayed. Continue reading

• Dr Sarah Mares is a child and family psychiatrist and in 2014 was consultant to the Australian Human Rights Commission National Inquiry into Children in Detention.

The company that used to be called Transfield Services, has revealed a profit of Au$25.1 million for the six months to the end of December.

The jump in group earnings was mostly driven by a 6.5 per cent rise in underlying earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) in the company's defence, social and property sector, which includes the detention centres contracts.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection recently said the company was no longer the sole preferred bidder for a new, five-year contract.

Instead, the government extended Broadspectrum's current contract by 12 months to give it time to open up the tender process.

Spanish infrastructure giant Ferrovial is making a takeover bid for Broadspectrum.

The uncertainty about the contract triggered a sharp sell off in Broadspectrum's shares and left Ferrovial's $692 million bid for the company in the balance.

Ferrovial described the change to the contract status as a "significant and negative" one that adversely impacts the value of the takeover target.

Broadspectrum remains open to talks with Ferrovial if the Spanish infrastructure returns with a higher takeover offer, said chief executive Graeme Hunt.

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• smh.com.au
• sbs.com.au
• Image: sbs.com.au

The Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said he will carefully examine the implications of the High Court judgement backing his Government's tough line on asylum seekers.

But he said his Government is resolute in protecting Australia's border.

The Anglican Dean of Brisbane, Peter Catt, has declared the city's cathedral a sanctuary for those who have suffered trauma and risk abuse if they are returned to Nauru.

"This fundamentally goes against our faith, so our church community is compelled to act, despite the possibility of individual penalty against us," Catt said.

Paediatricians have detailed their concerns to the ABC about the child and the wellbeing and safety of about 160 other children held in Australia's detention centres.

Paediatrician Karen Zwi, speaking despite the threat of jail, said the young child suffered serious mental health problems after the alleged sexual assault.

She said the child's greatest fear was returning to Nauru.

A second paediatrician, Dr Hasantha Gunasekera told the ABC a report of a sexual assault among refugees held on Nauru is made every 13 days, most of the alleged victims being children.

Nauru police commissioner Corey Caleb rejected the reports, claiming "refugees regularly fabricate allegations of assault and sexual assault".

In statement released on Tuesday, Commissioner Caleb lambasted "friendly Australian journalists who have a political agenda" for publicising the "lies".

"They tell us they have been assaulted but their stories seldom add up," he said.

He accused journalists of encouraging false reporting, adding that the refugees would be charged with making a false complaint had the allegation been made in Australia.

Source

• abc.net.au
• radionz.co.nz
• channelnewsasia.com
• Image: stuff.co.nz

The Australian government has granted the welfare contract to the multinational, Transfield Services.

Transfield Services has received $1.5bn from the Australian federal government since being contracted in October 2012 to manage Australia's detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru.

There have been 47 violations of international law at the centres since Transfield took on the contract three years ago, according to the report by not-for-profit group No Business in Abuse.

Charities working in Australia's asylum seeker detention centres have been asked to pay multi-million dollar bonds that can be forfeited if they speak out against government policy.

Fairfax Media reported that aid agencies, including Save the Children and the Australian Red Cross, were asked by the immigration department to offer "performance security" during contract negotiations.

Save the Children Australia chief executive Paul Ronalds said his organisation refused to sign the bond agreement, interpreting it as a gag clause.

But other organisations, including the Red Cross and Transfield Services, agreed to pay.

"We're incredibly proud of what we've achieved, the education we've been able to deliver to asylum seekers and refugees, the support we've been able to provide," said Rolands.

"On the other hand, we are very concerned that with Save the Children leaving, it means there's even one less voice on Nauru to speak out for children and their families."

There needed to be far greater transparency and oversight of Australia's offshore processing centres, which have been condemned by human rights groups and the United Nations, he said.

Source

• radionz.co.nz
• theguardian.com
• Image: theguardian.com

It is understood that police seized electronic items such as phones and laptops during the raid on Saturday, with the operation believed to be related to stories leaked to media in Australia. Continue reading

It continues however to refuse entry to refugees on boats from Indonesia.

The head of Australia's Refugee Council says he expects Australia will soon ask New Zealand to help get it out of trouble with the Nauru asylum seekers' centre but New Zealand should break away from Australia and use its own good record to push for change.

Paul Power, the chief executive of the Refugee Council of Australia, spoke to MPs at the Foreign Affairs select committee and urged them to consider how New Zealand could use its influence on the matter rather than working in concert with Australia.

Power is also the chair of the Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Working Group on refugees.

Asked why Syrians currently in detention on Manus Island and Nauru did not deserve the opportunity of resettlement, The Prime Minster of Australia, Tony Abbott said, "We will never ever do anything that encourages the evil trade of people smuggling and all of those who have come to Australia by boat are here as a result of people smuggling."

"The logic is simple and, in isolation, compelling," says Michael Gordon writing in the Sydney Morning Herald. "Australia will not do anything that offers the most tacit, indirect or qualified acceptance that people in desperate situations will do whatever they can to get to safety, including paying third parties for passage."

"Otherwise, the argument goes, the boats will start coming again, along with the deaths at sea. Labour agrees."

"But the problem is twofold. If all other countries adopted the same approach, the humanitarian crisis in Europe would escalate exponentially; and those on Manus and Nauru are left in a perpetual, mind-numbing or mind-destroying limbo," says Gordon.

Source

• smh.com.au
• nzherald.co.nz
• theguardian.com
• Image: radionz.co.nz

The messages on the signboard outside the church on the NSW Central Coast, of which Father Rod Bower is archdeacon, have taken aim at detention centre operator Transfield on more than one occasion.

Another read "Hesta divests Transfield. Good on ya!" — a reference to a superannuation fund's decision to divest its Transfield shares. Continue reading

Written submissions to the Australian Senate Committee inquiry told of rape and sexual assault, of children self-harming, of guards trading hot water and drugs for sex, of women and children wetting their beds rather than risk walking to the toilet block at night, and of crowded, mouldy tents infested with mice and cockroaches.

Transfield Services has a A$1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) contract to manage the centre on Nauru.

Appearing before the Senate committee, the company's executive general manager of logistics and facilities management, Derek Osborn, was unable to give specific information about how allegations of the sexual assault of a young boy in 2013 were handled.

Nor could he say how many serious assaults or incidents of self-harm had occurred on Transfield's watch.

Transfield's director, Angela-Margaret Williams, was similarly flummoxed when asked about the gender breakdown of the 500 staff.

Like Osborn, she replied that she did not "have that information at hand" - a gap in knowledge that the committee chairman, Labor Senator Alex Gallacher, described as "extraordinary".

Source

• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: resources1.news.com.au

It says four Australian Federal Police officers will also travel to Nauru to advise local police.

Both developments are part of the government's response to the damning findings of the Moss Review into allegations of sexual abuse inside the Nauru detention centre, which was released in March.

The review, conducted by former integrity commissioner Philip Moss, found evidence of rape, sexual assault of minors and guards trading marijuana for sexual favours from female detainees.

It also cleared Save the Children staff of claims they had coached detainees to embarrass the Abbott government.

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, says the child protection panel consists of three highly skilled and independent individuals in the fields of law enforcement, child protection and public sector accountability — John Lawler, Margaret Allison and Dominic Downie.

He says two of the police officers being sent to Nauru have extensive experience in investigation sexual assault allegations and will provide Nauru police advice on how to manage such investigations.

Source

• Radio New Zealand
• Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: Radio New Zealand

However some are claiming the social media blackout was directed by the Australian government to assist its Cambodian resettlement policy.

The Nauru government says it is restricting internet access to block pornography, especially child pornography.

In a statement issued to explain the ban, the government says "pornography is not consistent with the faith and values" of the people of Nauru.

The opposition in Nauru claims the government ordered the country's only internet service provider Digicel to shut-down certain sites, like Facebook.

But the government says it has not blocked access to Facebook and claims to the contrary are politically motivated.

It says it is possible some social media sites have been blocked since it issued a ban on pornography sites.

Suzette Clark, a catholic sister and the former vice-chair of the Australian Churches Refugee Taskforce, says a ban on Facebook, even for a short time, will be distressing for asylum seekers on Nauru.

Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says her sources say this ban on Facebook has nothing to do with the government of Nauru, but is a directive from the Australian government.

Source

• Radio Australia
• Radio Australia
• Radio Australia
• Radio New Zealand

In his recent Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium Pope Francis calls for generosity towards migrant people. He says, "Migrants present a particular challenge for me, since I am the pastor of a Church without frontiers, a Church which considers herself mother to all. For this reason, I exhort all countries to a generous openness which, rather than fearing the loss of local identity, will prove capable of creating new forms of cultural synthesis." #210

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has published two reports of Australia's offshore detention centres and one covering Nauru and one covering Manus.

The reports conclude the policies regarding treatment of asylum seekers breach international law and offer inhumane treatment to people subject to harsh deterrence policies, including transfer to Nauru or Manus Island within 48 hours.

Both reports conclude that the offshore processing of asylum seekers constitutes "arbitrary and mandatory detention under international law"; that no offshore processing centres offer "safe and humane conditions of treatment in detention", and none provide a "fair, efficient and expeditious system for assessing refugee claims".

Both reports are particularly critical of the Abbot government's new 48-hour target turnaround time to send asylum seekers offshore, which one report says does not allow "an adequate individualised assessment of health concerns or vulnerabilities".

They are both critical of plans to resettle genuine refugees offshore, saying that Nauruan and Papua New Guinean officials tasked with making refugee determination tests number too few and have not been trained properly. The reports also observe cramped conditions and little access to privacy and recreation in all regional processing centres.

Source

• UNHCR
• Pacific Scoop
• The Guardian
• Evangelii Gaudium
• Image: AFP/File,William West

All of those attempting suicide were Iranian or Iraqi asylum seekers among those transferred from Australia to Nauru on 21 January, 2013

"Just as with the recent suicide attempts on Manus Island, those on Nauru reflects the despair and desperation that engulfs asylum seekers in the remote detention centres.

Many are tricked into the transfers initially believing they are being moved into the community like others who arrived with them," said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.

"People on Nauru still have no idea when their refugee process will begin. And conditions are deteriorating in the camp itself. The construction site for the new detention building has cramped the small site even further. The recreation space has been dramatically reduced.

The Australian has reported that 88 detainees will soon be to moving out of tents and into a newly built block.

It says that, unlike the flimsy weatherboard huts used in the first iteration of the Pacific Solution under the Howard government, the new buildings are built to last.

"Australian and local workmen were swarming over them yesterday to complete the finishing touches in time for a planned handover next week."

The initial stage of the project is a twin-storey accommodation centre of about 1000sq m, containing 44 rooms grouped in three pods, connected by covered breezeways.

Asylum-seekers will sleep two to a room of 4m x 3.5m. The centre is the first of 10 planned accommodation blocks in a camp that will cost more than $70 million to build and hold up to 1500 detainees.

Source

• RefugeeAction.org.au
• The Australian
• Image: ABC

Alex Pagliaro was one of two researchers who last week visited the camp where 387 male asylum seekers are crammed into leaky tents in a very hot environment.
She says it is a recipe for disaster.

Nauru's foreign minister Dr. Kieren Keke, who is a medical doctor, says he appreciates the advice of Amnesty International inspectors, and says he will move quickly to make changes.

Keke says construction will soon start on permanent accommodation, but he will seek to make improvements in the meantime.

"Some of the things are simple and relate to communication, information being provided to asylum seekers," he said.

"As well as some of the simple things, the number of toilets and showers, the lack of shade in some areas, the inadequate number of computers for communication - and those kinds of things which I think can be addressed relatively quickly."

"The current facilities that are available are certainly not what either the Nauru government or the Australian Government wants and are finding acceptable as a permanent solution," he said.

"Unfortunately, and quite frustratingly for myself and the Nauru government, there's been delays caused largely through negotiations on revised terms of the land lease for the land that the site is on."
Source

• Radio New Zealand International
• Island Business
• Image: The Age

This is according to a spokesperson for Australia's Immigration Minister.

Major Paul Moulds, of the Salvation Army, is quoted as saying that the uncertainty is having a detrimental effect on the behaviour of the asylum seekers, some of whom have protested peacefully about the indefinite delay in their processing, and some of whom are on a hunger strike.

Sources

• ABC Radio Australia
• Listen to the Radio Australia report
• Image: The Punch

An Iranian man attempted self harm on Thursday, while another two Iranians did the same on Saturday, an Australian Immigration Department spokesman told AAP.

No further details were available for privacy reasons.

Under the Australian government's new offshore processing regime, 254 asylum seekers have been transferred to Nauru, while Papua New Guinea's Manus Island is expected to start receiving transfers in the coming weeks.

Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said Nauru's processing facility lacked adequate resources to deal with mental health problems.

"The government has created the circumstances in which it must have known that there would be a very high level of anxiety and mental illness created by what they're doing," he said.

A number of detainees held a protest at the Nauru centre on Sunday, calling on authorities to process their asylum claims immediately, Mr Rintoul said.

Source

• Yahoo7 News
• Image: SBS