The savage physical attack on a 23 year-old female Iranian asylum seeker has cast a pall of fear over Nauru.
On Saturday, 16 May, the young woman had been on day-release from the detention centre, visiting refugees in the community. She was expected to return to the detention centre by 5pm. Around 4.30pm, she left the house she was visiting to get a bus back to the detention centre.
When she didn’t return, her brother accompanied by security guards went to the house around 6.30pm, to inquire about her. They then went to the Nauru hospital, but she was not there.
Around 8.00pm, a refugee came across Nauruan police, wrapping the woman in a blanket and trying to place her in a police car. She had been found naked, distressed and disoriented.
Police and Nauruan officials obstructed attempts by refugees to talk to her and kept insisting that ‘nothing happened.’
The woman was taken to the police station where police contacted some of her friends to bring clothes for her. She was later taken and admitted to the medical centre at the detention centre.
A sexual assault has not been confirmed by any of the authorities, but it is widely believed she has been the victim of a sexual attack. She has extensive bruising to her body and she had a serious head injury that left her drifting in and out of consciousness on the Saturday night.
In the early hours of Sunday morning (17 May), Nauruan police returned to the vicinity of the house she was visiting to search for her clothes, mobile phone and other belongings.
The assault has left other refugees terrified of being out after dark. Saturday’s attack is the latest in what seems to be an escalating series of physical and sexual assaults on refugees.
Shamefully, but typically, it seems the Nauruan police are attempting to cover-up the crime. The cover-up is just the latest indication of a pattern of police inaction and unwillingness of Nauruan authorities to protect refugees or to investigate or take seriously the attacks on refugees.
The denial of the attack by police and Nauruan immigration authorities has outraged refugees.
The cover-up of Saturday’s assault is just the latest example of the authorities inability and unwillingness to ensure the safety of refugees in the Nauruan community.
A protest of around 50 refugee women has been held this afternoon (Tues 19 May) at Beach House, the office of Australian immigration and Connect service providers. The protest is demanding that the Australian Immigration Department end the cover-up and reveal the truth about the attack.
“Day by day, the stark reality that Nauru is unsafe for asylum seekers or refugees becomes clearer. Neither Transfield, nor the Immigration Department, nor the Nauruan government or police is able to protect asylum seekers in or out of detention,” said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition.
“The cover up of this horrific assault is exactly the same attitude that covered up the sexual and physical abuse of woman and children in detention. The Immigration Department can’t be trusted with the care of asylum seekers and refugees. Nauru should be closed.”
For more information, contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713.
