On Tuesday, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International published a report on the appalling conditions at the Nauru center, where some 1,200 asylum-seekers, among them 49 children, are currently being held. According to the report, many children stop attending classes due to frequent bullying and harassment from locals.
"Save the Children Australia recently estimated that 85 percent of refugee and asylum seeking children were not enrolled in school. Bullying and harassment was a factor in that low rate of enrollment. Another factor found to contribute to low enrollment was the trauma children had undergone as the result of a year or more of detention in appalling conditions, the ongoing abuses they and their families face, and their uncertainty about their future. Our interviews with children revealed the same concerns," Michael Bochenek, senior counsel on children’s rights at HRW, told Sputnik.
"In short, for the Australian government to say that it is not aware of abuses in its Nauru operations simply strains credulity," Bochenek said.
During the undercover 12-day investigation in July, Bochenek and his colleague from Amnesty International Anna Neistat managed to interview 84 people at Nauru camp.
"The Australian government has gone to great lengths, together with the government of Nauru, to keep their offshore operations as secret as possible, so we had every reason to believe that advising the Department [of Immigration and Border Protection] in advance of our travel would have severely hampered our ability to speak with refugees," he said.
Australia detains refugees who come to the country to seek asylum on the islands of Manus in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, a practice which has been criticized by rights groups for subjecting refugees to inhumane living conditions.
