With doctors working in immigration detention now challenging the Border Force Act in the High Court, serious questions should be asked by the Australian public about the inability of doctors to speak out about what happens to the asylum seekers and refugees that they treat in offshore detention centres.

Offshore detention has been shrouded in secrecy for too long. Much of what we do know about the harm being caused by our current asylum seeker policies has been revealed by whistleblowers. These individuals have spoken out at great personal risk, putting their careers and livelihoods on the line and facing the prospect of imprisonment. Many other would-be whistleblowers stay silent, deterred from speaking out. Their silence harms them, harms people in our care and harms our democracy.

Broadmeadows detention centre is the indefinite home for some refugees. Credit:Joe Armao

An in-depth report recently released by Young Liberty for Law Reform – Operation Secret Borders: What we don't know can hurt us – has found that whistleblowers increasingly face insurmountable legal and cultural barriers to speaking out. Our report finds that would-be whistleblowers working in Australia's immigration and border security regime face a complex web of legal restrictions and a culture of secrecy in which speaking out means putting your career and livelihood on the line.

They face the threat of prosecution under broad, unnecessary laws that criminalise disclosure of information. They are subject to confidentiality clauses and restrictive workplace policies imposed by companies contracted by the government to work in detention centres.