Australian doctors expose abuses

THEY DEFY BAN ON DISCLOSING INFORMATION ON DETENTION CENTRES FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS

More than 40 doctors, nurses, teachers and welfare staff who work with asylum seekers in Australian-run detention centres yesterday defied a government ban on disclosing information about the facilities, a news report said.

The workers risk prosecution and two years imprisonment for speaking out under new laws that go into force July 1, The Guardian newspaper reported.

The staff wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton challenging the secrecy imposed on asylum-seeker matters.

Under the new Border Force Act, staff at detention centres, including those in Nauru and on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, are banned from speaking publicly about the conditions there unless they have the permission of the immigration minister.

“We have advocated, and will continue to advocate, for the health of those for whom we have a duty of care, despite the threats of imprisonment, because standing by and watching sub-standard and harmful care, child abuse and gross violations of human rights is not ethically justifiable,” reads the letter.

“We are aware that in publishing this letter we may be prosecuted under the Border Force Act and we challenge the department to prosecute so that these issues may be discussed in open court and in the full view of the Australian public,” it said.

Announcing the tough new secrecy provisions, Dutton said information surrounding detention centres was “sensitive and complex.”

“It is therefore necessary that information secrecy and disclosure arrangements should be in place not only to protect information but also to enable the disclosure of information in appropriately controlled circumstances,” Dutton said.

Australian doctors have vowed to continue speaking out on human rights abuses at offshore detention centres in defiance of a law passed yesterday that they say could leave them liable to two years in prison.

The letter, signed by dozens of medical professionals, social workers and teachers, says the Australian Border Force Act builds on a “wall of secrecy” surrounding Australia’s asylum system.

The Act, the latest in a string of measures to keep asylum seekers from Australia’s shores, carries a two-year prison sentence for “entrusted persons” who record or disclose protected information.