Photos from Nauru detention centre
I have obtained photos taken inside the Nauru detention centre.
The photos were taken in OPC3, which is where single adult females and families are detained, including children.
The photos reveal the harsh conditions in the detention centre: gravel, no air-conditioning, rusty fans, no privacy, no doors, and mould in the tents.
An asylum seeker in Nauru has told me: “there is mosquito net but we are in tent and cockroach, lizard, crab and another animal come in our tent easily.”
Transfield’s Executive General Manager, Logistics & Facilities Management, Derek Osborne, recently told the senate inquiry into the Recent Allegations relating to Conditions and Circumstances at the Regional Processing Centre in Nauru that the average temperature on Nauru is “low to mid-30s. It is humid and it is hot.”
Only tents with children under 5 are air-conditioned.
The photos also show children in detention, including baby Asha*. Asha was born in Australia and was sent to Nauru on 4 June.
The ABC reported that Asha’s mother, known as Abhaya, is quite distressed and has struggled to produce breast milk.
Natasha Blucher from Darwin’s Asylum Seeker Advocacy Network told the ABC: “She (Abhaya) says that it’s been raining for days and the roof of the tent leaks … but that during the day it’s very hot and humid and the tent heats up.”
“She says the baby has a heat rash, and that the tent has air conditioning but because the walls are flimsy and made of canvas, the air conditioning doesn’t keep the tent cool.”
On Wednesday 24 June more than 40 asylum seekers were transferred from Darwin to Nauru, including three babies.
On Thursday 25 June the senate passed the the Migration Amendment (Regional Processing Arrangements) Bill 2015, which was rushed through the parliament to protect offshore processing from a High Court challenge.
Labor and the Coalition rejected the following Greens amendments:
- A 3 month time-limit on the length of detention.
- No further children being sent to detention in Nauru.
- Mandatory reporting requirements of child abuse and assault.
- Access to offshore detention camps for the Human Rights Commission, the Commonwealth Ombudsman, and journalists.
Below are the photos taken in the Nauru detention centre. This is what the government does not want the public to see.
*Pseudonym
