ABC’s 7.30 airs footage of Wilson Security guards calling detainees ‘fuckers’ and ‘cunts’ and reveals more details of ‘unauthorised’ spying on Greens senator

Australian guards working at Nauru detention centre joked about shooting detainees before a riot in July 2013 for which a number of detainees were charged, according to footage obtained by the ABC’s 7.30 program.

The footage from a body camera worn by a guard employed by Wilson Security at the Australian-run detention centre, apparently filmed a short time before the unrest began, showed several guards discussing plans to assist Nauru police during the anticipated unrest and dismissively calling detainees “fuckers” and “cunts”.

In one exchange, a guard can be heard to say: “We’ve got cops at Charlie two… If they do try to escape the coppers want your team up there to give them a hand. Arrest the fuckers.”

Nauru guards were spying on Sarah Hanson-Young, Senate inquiry told Read more

In another exchange, between three brown-shirted guards, the man wearing the camera responds to an order to “assist the cops in any way and in as much capacity” as he can by saying, “yeah, as soon as the cop tells you what to do you can do it.”

Another guard jokes, “Now, I don’t understand Naruan so I’m just gonna say he told me to do everything.

He continued, over the laughter of other guards, “‘I’m pretty sure he said shoot that guy. I’m fairly confident he gave me that order’.”

A subsequent review of the riot, which destroyed much of the detention centre, criticised the Department of Immigration and major service providers for a “lack of decisive operational leadership”.

One former detention guard, whose identity was shielded, also contradicted claims made by Wilson Security management in a senate committee that the actions of some of its staff in spying on Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young during her visit to the detention centre in December 2013 were “not authorised.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Federal Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young. Guards on the island were allegedly briefed to follow her while she visiting Nauru and take notes on who she was talking to. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

The guard told reporter Hayden Cooper that eight guards were involved in the operation, codenamed ‘Operation Raven’, but once word got out they were told to destroy the evidence.

“Basically the individuals involved and the supervisor were called into the Wilson office, they were told to shred pages from their notebooks and any reports they had written up,” he said.

He said he had no doubts that it was an extensive spying operation, and not just Hanson-Young being “looked after” by the guards, as the prime minister, Tony Abbott, claimed.

“What I was aware of, or what I had heard from the guys that were involved, was that they were briefed on her room number, her vehicle, and what time she was going to be in and out of the camp,” the guard said.

Nauru riot: first two asylum seekers found guilty are sentenced to jail Read more

“They were also told to follow her, and they were told to keep notes on who she was talking to around the island and in her room.”

The interview accords with a submission made by a former Wilson Security employee to the senate inquiry into the Nauru detention centre, which also referenced what appeared to be the same body-camera video shown by 7.30.

The submission said the video made it “obvious to me that these Wilson guards were planning to use unreasonable force and assault the asylum seekers even before the riot started,” before concluding, “I strongly recommend the centre is shut down, the remaining asylum seekers be processed onshore and all the refugees that were released into the Nauruan community be brought to Australia.”

The senate inquiry into allegations around the conditions of the Nauru detention centre is expected to release its findings this month.