Refugees on Nauru complain of mental torture

Transcript

Refugees with temporary visas to settle in Nauru say they are losing faith in both the local government and Australia's to help them build a meaningful life on the island.

A statement from the Fly Camp refugees says conditions there are worse than at the asylum seeker centre on Nauru where they were processed.

Johnny Blades has read the lengthy account from the refugees:

JOHNNY BLADES: There's a little over 50 of these refugees, who are mainly men from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Earlier in year, the official Nauru determination process found them to be genuine refugees - remember some of them are fleeing from the Taliban - and they were granted temporary resident status to live on Nauru for no longer than five years. Their temporary resettlement has seen them placed in an area called the Fly Camp, near the area decimated by phosphate mining, adjacent to the asylum seeker procesing centre, but notably well away from the Nauruan community which tends to live by the coast.

SALLY ROUND: What are the refugees saying in their statement?

JB: Basically that they are living in isolation and in utter uncertainty which together constitute a kind of mental torture. After three months, they say they haven't been given the assistance promised by Australia's Department of Immigration for access to clean water, food and communications. They have been receiving clear signals from the local community that they are too different to mix with Nauruans or to have jobs. Now some of these refugees are highly trained. There are teachers amongst them who speak English, but they have been ruled out, it seems, from working in the local school system. They say this is contrary to the signals they initially got from the Australian and Nauru authorities.

SR: What has Australia's government said about them?

JB: Well, generally very little, and of course it remains difficult to get information about the offshore processing of asylum seekers from Canberra. However the Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has said refugees on Nauru are very happy. Well, these guys at Camp Fly say that is not true. They have very little money with which to build a life on the island and the physical conditions are extremely hot and harsh for them, as it appears to have long been for any asylum seekers brought to Nauru. They are very much isolated from the local community. The statement says that occasionally people from Australia, NGO people or the odd official, or perhaps a local or two, come to see the refugees, observe them like animals in a zoo. That's how they feel.

SR: They say they feel like they have no future and no hope?

JB: Yes, in this quite articulate statement, they describe the overwhelming uncertainty over almost every aspect of their life. It renders efforts to rebuild a life for them rather futile. They get referred from pillar to post by officials without really getting much in the way of a clear answer to their long list of concerns. They're bounced back and forth between Canberra, the Nauru government and the NGO Save the Children, which is on the ground in Nauru. There's a bit in the statement where they say how back in their homeland, the Taliban may come and slash your throat and you die within ten to fifteen minutes, but with the Australian-English method it is a long painful death where your soul and life is gradually taken away.