Australian Government secrecy around a refugee who set himself on fire on Nauru has left his family pleading for answers in a case that has caused diplomatic friction with Pakistan.

Key points: Jamal fled Pakistan citing threats from the Taliban

Jamal fled Pakistan citing threats from the Taliban Friends and family say the 36-year-old worked with the US military in Afghanistan

Friends and family say the 36-year-old worked with the US military in Afghanistan His family have been unable to get information on Jamal's wellbeing

The 36-year-old known as Jamal, whose family and friends say he fled Pakistan because of threats from the Taliban over his work with the US military in Afghanistan, has been in the Royal Brisbane Hospital (RBH) for a week.

But his brother Wasim* has been forced to engage an Australian lawyer to seek details about Jamal's condition, after hospital staff repeatedly told him they had no patient record for him.

"I want to know, how is my brother? Is he alive? How is the situation? How is his body, because he has burned himself, how he is now?" Wasim told the ABC from Qatar.

The ABC has confirmed Jamal — who has been granted refugee status — remains under treatment at the RBH.

Faisal*, another refugee who lived with Jamal on Nauru, said he was shocked by the attempted suicide of his "strong" friend, but it was a window into the mental decline of those left behind on the island after the transfer of hundreds of others to the US and Australia.

Jamal was granted refugee status while detained on Nauru. ( Supplied )

The Pakistani High Commission in Canberra has taken a swipe at Australia over its secrecy, saying it was "desperately seeking" any kind of update about Jamal's condition.

"We are pressing hard to get consular access to Mr Jamal," High Commission official Muhammad Tariq Wazir said.

"We hope that the Australian Government will allow us to access our national at this critical time.

"Other than that, we are facing difficulty to gain information about Mr Jamal.

"We are desperately seeking to know more about his condition and any information that may be useful."

Jamal arrived on Saturday about 24 hours after setting himself alight in front of a mental health doctor on Nauru.

Faisal, now in immigration detention in Brisbane, said he detected warning signs in a phone call with Jamal two days before the incident.

"He told me that he tried to do something and I tried to convince him to not do anything wrong," he said.

Jamal fled Pakistan because of threats from the Taliban over his work with the US military in Afghanistan. ( Supplied )

"But still I [didn't] believe he will do that because he was a strong man — he's strong, he's humble, he's a beautiful guy.

"But I understand because I have experience for six years too — Nauru is a tiny island and all the island is like a prison.

"In the end we are human beings and sometimes the brain doesn't work."

'What can I do to get information?'

Days after Jamal was transferred to Brisbane, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton claimed the Medevac laws encouraged asylum seekers to self-harm to get to Australia.

But this week Mr Dutton's department was unable to provide evidence to a parliamentary inquiry that self-harm cases spiked in the wake of the Medevac bill, which the Government is trying to overturn.

Wasim said Jamal's friends told him it was a failed suicide attempt that left his brother in "a really critical situation".

"I called the Royal Brisbane Hospital and they checked in the system and they said, 'your brother is not here'," he said.

"I was shocked, so I said to them, 'what can I do to get information about my brother? Where is he? How is he?'."

Wasim said he was not concerned about Australia providing information on his brother's medical condition to the Pakistan High Commission.

However, Sarah Dale, principal solicitor at the Refugee Advice and Casework Service, said it was appropriate for Australia to withhold information about a refugee from their former government, even if it was not the agent of harm.

"If the state has information about you and it's been unable to protect you when you were there, you certainly don't want it to hold that information about you or where you are," she said.

Ms Dale said it was her "hope and assumption" that where an asylum seeker was "gravely ill", the Government would "take every step to contact" whoever had been given as an emergency contact.

The office of Foreign Minister Marise Payne and her department referred questions from the ABC to the Department of Home Affairs, which declined to comment.

Wasim has engaged lawyer George Newhouse to seek answers.

The Refugee Action Collective, with authorisation from Wasim, previously sought updates without success.

'The Taliban sent a letter to our house'

Wasim said his brother's first job out of university was with the US army in Afghanistan, where he worked as an interpreter in kitchens on defence bases for about two years.

He said this came back to haunt him in Pakistan.

"The Taliban sent a letter to our house, they said that 'we want this guy, this is your son and he's working with the American army, why's he helping them?'," he said.

"We want him. Where is he?"

Wasim said the Taliban continued to search for his brother, who attempted to find safety by relocating to other states in Pakistan, before deciding to flee the country altogether.

"But I'm sorry to say, the Australian Government has also not given him justice or safety," he said.

Faisal said both he and Jamal were granted refugee status in mid-2014.

Jamal was one of over 300 refugees left on Nauru after more than 500 were transferred to the US. ( Supplied )

"That's a big claim [that] he work with the American [military], with NATO," he said.

"The only reason he got refugee status is because he got strong evidence, paper documents, all the proof."

He said Jamal was among a handful of refugees who worked in the kitchen of the Australian-run Nauru detention centre, then later for a refugee settlement team with the company Connect.

"He was always helping others, all of the refugees, and he was even close with the locals too."

Jamal was one of over 300 refugees left on Nauru after more than 500 were transferred to the US under a refugee swap deal and more than 100 to Australia on medical grounds.

Faisal said his friend's outlook had taken a plunge after the departure of his three closest friends.

"He keep telling me that the problem was we four friends were living together — we had good communication and good friendship, we would always help each other," Faisal said.

"But he was just left alone there and in that situation, it's really hard to survive."

Jamal's suicide attempt still came as a shock, Faisal said.

"My other friends are more serious than Jamal so I was worried about them and then suddenly I got this news," he said.

*Names have been changed.