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Stop the offshore health crisis – calls for Federal Government to end offshore detention

Introduction by Croakey: With all of the refugees in Australia’s offshore detention facility in Papua New Guinea, and 65 percent of people held in Nauru suffering physical health conditions, “health remains one of the most significant risks facing people offshore”.

These are some of the key findings in a recent report by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, titled Cruelty by Design: The health crisis in offshore detention.

It also found that 88 percent of the refugees in Papua New Guinea and 22 percent of people held in Nauru also suffer severe mental health conditions.

Below, Jana Favero, Head of Systemic Change at ASRC, urges the health sector to add their voices to a campaign calling for the Federal Government to end “shameful” offshore detention policies.


Jana Favero writes:

The evidence pointing to a failed policy of offshore detention is overwhelming. Year after year, report after report, the mountain of evidence grows.

To mark the 11th anniversary of the current iteration of offshore processing, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) released an exclusive health report detailing distressing case studies and health statistics of 47 refugees held in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and 96 people now held on Nauru.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s detention advocacy team is in direct, constant contact with about two-thirds of the people currently trapped in PNG and Nauru.

Despite difficulties connecting with people – those on Nauru report lack of access to smartphones to connect overseas and in some cases it takes days for us to get a stable line to speak to people – we provide over the phone support for those who have been whisked away by the Australian Federal Government.

The conversations with all whom are trapped offshore on PNG and Nauru are harrowing.

When can I see my family? When can I see a doctor? Why am I still here? How can you help us? The questions and endless limbo torments people.

Cruelty by design

Supported by medical testimony and our specialist detention casework insights, Cruelty by Design: The health crisis in offshore detention report documents the legacy of preventable deaths, medical neglect and countless human rights abuses that have occurred offshore and the urgent need to medically evacuate those remaining.

Everyone we are in contact with on PNG reports physical health problems and issues accessing appropriate healthcare. On Nauru, it’s more than 60 percent.

Alarmingly, in PNG, 20 percent of refugees are so unwell that their lives are at imminent risk. We have a real fear that someone will die soon. And it’s not just us, doctors have issued the same warning.

Our Government has stood by and witnessed 11 years of failure. In any other situation where the majority of people were reporting mental and physical health conditions as a result of a government policy, there would be an outcry and immediate action.

Yet successive governments have knowingly engaged in a harmful practice, sending people offshore to situations and conditions of abuse. Knowingly keeping people in a place we know will keep them sick and sending people to a place we know will make them sick.

Over the past 11 years, the ASRC’s detention program has submitted more than 400 risk notifications regarding people held in offshore detention to government officials and offshore medical providers, detailing critical incidents of medical neglect, self-harm, suicidality and severe and deteriorating physical and mental health conditions requiring urgent treatment.

In 2017, I visited the Manus Island detention camp and at the time was shocked at the conditions and the mental and physical toll on the men trapped there.

I marvelled at their comradery, resilience and strength and wondered how long they could continue to endure such conditions. Seven years later, 47 men and their families are still there. I can’t fathom how they are still alive.

Political poison

All this is happening because of politics. It is said that politics poisons policy and nowhere is this more evident than in our policy of offshore detention.

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Regional Processing Arrangement with PNG, and later Nauru, has led to successive governments rubber-stamping thousands of men, women and children enduring years of torture and unspeakable human rights abuses at offshore detention centres in Nauru and Manus Island.

Despite being presented with overwhelming evidence of a cruel policy failure, including at least 14 preventable deaths, our political leaders continue to persist with the same standard, unacceptable responses and excuses for continuing with offshore processing and detention.

The tired excuses are that if we treat people with compassion, we are weak and we’ll lose votes; if we provide adequate medical care, we will be flooded with arrivals; it’s the responsibility of PNG/Nauru; it was only ever intended as a short-term solution – the list goes on.

Each excuse is nonsense and is not based on any evidence. They are trying to defend the indefensible with weasel words and misinformation that justifies their cruelty.

The capacity to act inhumanely continues and the excuses are endless. Our governments have continued to turn their backs on people who arrived on our shores seeking safety. Making a choice to punish people who arrived.

More voices needed

However, there are solutions for ending this cruelty and stopping the offshore health crisis.

We need more voices, more people to apply pressure on the Government and say this is enough, people deserve better.

It’s a challenge but we know public and expert pressure has forced change. Change happened with Kids off Nauru, it happened with the passing of the Medevac Laws and with the final release of refugees from hotel detention.

Researchers and health professionals have and can continue to play a vital role spotlighting the evidence that shows the impacts of detention, isolation, family separation, and medical neglect on people’s mental and physical health.

Doctors are some of the most trusted people in our community – your voices carry weight, and the public and politicians listen when you speak up.

For the Albanese Government, the solution is simple.

People currently held in Nauru and PNG must be urgently evacuated to Australia where they can receive the appropriate medical care and social support.

If not, there will undoubtedly be further, preventable loss of life.

Evacuation and an end to offshore detention is what refugees are demanding, it’s what healthcare professionals are demanding, it’s what the public are demanding. It’s what many Australian Labor Party politicians while in opposition were demanding.

The time for change is now and people’s lives depend on it.

Other ways to get involved:

Sign the petition calling for immediate evacuation of people held in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Reach out to media@asrc.org.au if you’re interested in joining the campaign as a spokesperson, or if you’d like to share your research with us.

About the author

Jana Favero is the Head of Systemic Change and has worked for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) for 14 years. Jana is a regular spokesperson in breaking news on human rights and refugee policy on and offshore, and leads ASRC’s political engagement as a trusted subject matter expert on asylum policy.


See Croakey’s archive of articles on human rights.

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