I was doing a little research on Australia recently after reading the horror stories on racism and abuse in their juvenile justice system. I was struck by the fact that more than half the population of Australia was born outside the country. I have to ask myself, how can a country where one out of two people is a refugee or immigrant treat others attempting to follow them as sub-humans. Not mentioned in this article is the fact that Nauru is it’s own tiny nation, the camp is under the control of Australia and run by an Australia hired private contractor, and the place is deliberately out of reach of scrutiny by human rights organizations and journalists. The following is from the Amnesty International report;

A wall of secrecy

The Australian government’s offshore operation on Nauru is surrounded by a wall of secrecy, with both Australia and Nauru going to great lengths to prevent the flow of information off the island. Service providers and others who work on the island face criminal charges and civil penalties under Australian law if they disclose information about conditions for asylum seekers and refugees held offshore. Nauru has banned Facebook on the island and has enacted vaguely worded laws against threats to public order that legal experts fear could be used to criminalize protests by refugees and asylum seekers.

Journalists in particular face severe restrictions on entry, with an $8,000 non-refundable visa fee and a protracted application process. Nauru has granted visas to just two media outlets since January 2014. Other requests have been rebuffed or met with no response. UN officials have been denied entry or in some cases have concluded that a visit would be impractical due to severe limitations on their access.”

Amnesty International’s visa application was ignored for two years. An Amnesty representative got her own visa and was able to travel to the island, but was still denied entry to the camp.

This place is Hell on earth.

Here’s a link to the Amnesty report;

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/08/australia-abuse-neglect-of-refugees-on-nauru/