Leaked Docs Expose 1,000 Child Abuse Cases at Australia's Nauru Detention Center

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A total of 1,086 of the reported incidents at the immigration processing facility concern children, while they constituted only about 18 percent of those held on the remote island during the time covered by the documents, from May 2013 to October 2015, an analysis of the 8,000-page documents by the newspaper shows.

The period covered by the incident reports coincide with the findings of the Australian Human Rights Commission that warned the country's government of high risk of self-harm cases and abuse of children in its offshore processing centers.

The Nauru facility was opened in 2001 and ran until 2008. In 2012, it was reopened following a surge in the number of maritime arrivals of asylum seekers.

Rights groups have sharply criticized the detention camps for their inhumane living conditions and incidents of sexual and physical abuse.