Responding to The Guardian’s “Nauru files” leak today, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research Anna Neistat said:
“This leak has laid bare a system of ‘routine dysfunction and cruelty’ that is at once dizzying in its scale and utterly damning for the Australian authorities who tried so hard to maintain a veil of secrecy.
“When Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch went to Nauru against the odds and saw with our own eyes the appalling and systemic abuses taking place, the Australian government tried to roundly deny our findings.
“The exposure of just how appalling the conditions on Nauru are – and the impact of this on refugees – has to end the government of Australia’s denials.
“The exposure of just how appalling the conditions on Nauru are – and the impact of this on refugees – has to end the government of Australia’s denials.”
Anna Neistat, Amnesty International
“Australia’s offshore processing of refugees must end, and all of the refugees and asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island must be resettled immediately and given the medical and psychological support they need. It is clear from these documents, and our own research, that many have been driven to the brink of physical or mental breakdown by their treatment on Nauru.
“It is clear from these documents, and our own research, that many have been driven to the brink of physical or mental breakdown by their treatment on Nauru.”
Anna Neistat, Amnesty International
“The Australian government has engaged in one of the most successful mass cover-ups I’ve witnessed in my career of documenting human rights violations. They’ve repeatedly said this kind of abuse has not been going on. They’ve been lying.”
