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Nauru: Refugees held in Australian camp endure abuse hell

LEAKED reports from Australia’s offshore refugee detention camp on Nauru published yesterday detail a litany of violent and sexual abuse.

The camp on the tiny, remote Pacific island nation was already notorious for its terrible conditions and neglect of inmates.

But more than 2,000 reports leaked to the Australian edition of the Guardian allege that detainees, including children, face assaults, sexual abuse and mental distress.

They document incidents such as guards threatening a boy with death and only allowing a young woman a longer shower in return for sexual favours.

Mental stress caused by prolonged detention was deemed to be the cause of self-harm cases, including a woman trying to hang herself and a girl sewing her lips together.

In 2014, one girl wrote in her school book: “I want DEATH” and “I need death.”

Former Save the Children caseworker Natasha Blucher denied that the charity was the source of the reports.

“However, now that this information is on the public record, it enables us to speak out in an unprecedented way,” she said.

Teacher Jane Willey, who recognised her own handwriting in some of the reports, said the published data was nowhere near the full extent of what had been written.

“What you are seeing here is just the tip of the iceberg,” Ms Willey, who worked for Save the Children on Nauru between July 2014 and March 2015.

“Seeing children refer to themselves as a boat number, seeing evidence of self-harm … I dread to think of how those kids are doing.”

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