Leaked Documents Put Australia’s Refugee Policy Under Scrutiny

In August 2016, The Guardian published leaked case reports detailing the abuse, sexual assault, and squalid conditions that refugees face on the island of Nauru, which houses a detention center for migrants attempting to reach Australia. Of the over 2,000 leaked documents, more than half involve children, though they make up only 18 percent of the 442 people in the facility.

In 2003, the Australian government set up refugee-holding centers on Pacific Islands like Nauru and Papua New Guinea to discourage smugglers and migrants from taking dangerous journeys by sea to seek refugee status. Since then, boats have generally stopped arriving on Australia’s shores. While the previous government, led by Tony Abbott, strongly pursued the policy, current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s administration has looked for new solutions, though it has so far resisted changing the status quo.

Though human rights organizations worldwide have criticized the immigration policy, it has enjoyed largely bipartisan domestic support. However, the latest reports, filed by teachers, medical officers, and other staff members at the Nauru facility, have reignited the debate about Australia’s immigration policy.

The Nauru files reiterate the accusations of international advocacy organizations in a particularly visceral way. While some may hesitate to change Australia’s refugee policy, an SBS poll found that 57 percent of Australians would oppose any increase in Australia’s refugee intake.

Soon after The Guardian leaked the Nauru files in August, Papua New Guinea declared the Australian holding facility it hosted illegal. In response, the Turnbull government reaffirmed that the refugees “will not come to Australia,” but offered no details on what it will do with the New Guinea migrants. Many suspect it will likely resettle them to Nauru.

Given the upcoming closure of the Papua New Guinea facility, the atrocities revealed by the Nauru files, and an Australian opposition government pushing for further investigation, some activists are calling for a change in Australia’s offshore policies. However, others point out that damning reports on the island have failed to produce real change. Moreover, while Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court declared its facility illegal, the President of Nauru reaffirmed his support for the facility in an op-ed in The Australian, claiming activists in Australia have falsified abuse reports to incite social unrest.