A fight between asylum seekers and a Nauruan local last Friday, 11 October, has resulted in all local Nauruan workers being banned from Bravo compound of the main detention centre on Nauru. Reports indicate that the Nauruan local who attacked the Lebanese detainee works for the Salvation Army.
The Lebanese detainee hit by the Salvation Army worker required stitches to a head injury. There are also more reports of self-harm, attempted suicides and individual hunger strikes in Bravo compound.
Bravo compound is a separate area of the main compound holding around 70 people who are still facing charges resulting from the 19 July protests.
The fight came only two days after Scott Morrison visited the detention centre.
Tensions have been increasing particularly in recent weeks driven by the overcrowding as more asylum seekers have been dumped in the makeshift tent camp.
There are long lines to use the limited number of toilets (there are now around 10 toilets for between 500-600 people; queues at meal times with waits up to an hour; lines for the strictly regulated four-minute showers. The condition of the toilets is appalling and there is an epidemic of skin problems, particularly on their feet, attributed to the filthy conditions.
Complaints about inadequate medical treatment are also growing. “They just can’t treat people,” one asylum seeker told the Refugee Action Coalition.
Fuelling the tensions is also the discrimination against the 150 of the detainees expecting the outcomes of their refugee assessment. Some have now been waiting seven months for a decision. While they languish in detention, others who were not processed have been returned to Australia and released on bridging visas.
Tensions have been running high between locals and the asylum seekers since the detention centre burned on 19 July. One Australian worker at the detention centre has told the Refugee Action Coalition that clashes between Nauruan guards and asylum seekers have been increasing and that the clashes have also resulted in an increased number of beatings of asylum seekers by Nauruan guards.
There are also reports of Nauruan detention workers being harassed by other locals hostile to the presence of the detention centre.
“Scott Morrison’s media blackout can’t hide the abuses being inflicted on the asylum seekers being sent to Nauru. Neither the Australian nor the Nauruan government has any excuse for withholding the decisions of refugee processing. Prolonging their imprisonment is a form of physical and mental abuse,” said Ian Rintoul, on behalf of the Refugee Action Coalition.
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
