UN urges Australia to close detention centres in Nauru and PNG due to ‘collapsing’ health care
Médecins Sans Frontières also called for an immediate humanitarian evacuation of offshore detainees, saying there had been 78 cases of attempted suicide and self-harm in Nauru over the past year
The United Nations has called on Australia to immediately evacuate its offshore detention centres to prevent an unfolding health crisis.
Doctors from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) were ejected from Nauru on Wednesday and the UN high commissioner for refugees has warned that many asylum seekers who have attempted self-harm or have critical health issues now have no access to medical care.
Catherine Stubberfield, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Canberra, said health care was “collapsing” at the centres. She said a pre-teenage girl doused herself with petrol in a suicide attempt last month, and remained on Nauru despite a doctor’s advice to have her evacuated.
She also said many asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea had attempted self-harm or suicide last month, and others were suffering “acute” physical and mental health issues but had not been treated by doctors.
On Thursday, MSF called for an immediate humanitarian evacuation of offshore detainees. It said there had been 78 cases of attempted suicide and self-harm in Nauru over the past year.
Speaking on Friday, Stubberfield said Australia had to face the responsibility of its offshore detention camps because it had designed, paid for and set up the system.
“UNHCR does not agree with the government of Australia’s assertion that such cases are solely ‘matters for Papua New Guinea and Nauru’,” she said. “Australia [has] simultaneously designed, financed and managed the system.”
