In a very short trip, the parliamentary delegation did see a rare glimpse of Australia’s detention system – although perhaps not the one they hoped for

“If one thing positive came out of this trip”, Danish MP Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen said in the final hours of her visit to Australia to learn about the country’s immigration detention system, “it was that again the world can see that in a country where critical eyes and ears are not allowed, it’s obvious that something is being hidden”.

The carefully worded missive was Schmidt-Nielsen’s parting shot as she and five parliamentary colleagues from across Denmark’s political spectrum ended their fact-finding mission on Australia’s offshore detention regime.

It didn’t quite end up where the six had hoped. They found themselves in Canberra en route to Nauru via Brisbane when they learned that three of their members – Schmidt-Nielsen, a progressive politician from the red-green alliance (Enhedslisten), Socialist People’s party member Jacob Mark and Syrian-born conservative MP Naser Khader – would not be granted visas for entry by the Nauruan government, despite the long-planned trip.

Nauru has not explained this decision. It has not responded to the Guardian’s request for comment about the reason the politicians were barred. But two of those who were barred told the Guardian that the Nauruan government had made no secret of the reasons they were denied access.

“The government of Nauru actually said directly to the Danish embassy and also to the chairman of the Danish People’s party that we couldn’t go there because we had been saying critical things about what was going on,” Schmidt-Nielsen said. “They didn’t want that in Nauru.”

Danish delegation planning visit to Nauru detention centre refused visas Read more

Mark, who had also been critical of Australia’s policies, told the Guardian: “I thought that it must be a lie. It was crazy.

“It was presented to me as a decision of the Nauru government. They actually said that directly to us that it was because we have been critical before this trip. They said this to our chairman, and the committee.”

Khader told Fairfax Media he believed the decision to bar his entry was made because of his Muslim background and Arab ethnicity.

The awkward diplomatic debacle even drew the Danish foreign minister, Kristian Jensen, into the dispute. The Guardian understands his phone calls to senior ministers on Nauru went unanswered.

Jensen has since been critical of the Nauruan government’s decision to renege on its invitation in the Danish media – although more circumspect about Australia.

The Danes were shocked. Even the three remaining conservative politicians couldn’t believe another country would try to interfere with a parliamentary delegation in this way – even if they didn’t agree with their politics.

In a spirit of parliamentary unity that Australians might find surprising, the far right conservative member of the group and chairman, Danish People’s party member Martin Henriksen, pleaded that his parliamentary colleagues be allowed to continue.

“He tried, even though he is from another party, to convince them that we just wanted to have a look and know how they do things and why they do things,” Mark said.

When they were turned down, they all left. They went together, or not at all.

Turnbull suggests Australia is not responsible for asylum seekers held offshore Read more

The differences in political cultures was a particularly grating clash between liberal-minded Scandavian democracies and the much harsher politics of Australia and its largely dependent co-agent in the offshore detention regime, the Pacific island nation of Nauru.

Some lawyers describe the arrangement by which the detention centre and the welfare of the asylum seekers there has been outsourced to Nauru as a legal sleight of hand. The arrangement also gives the Australian government a convenient way to shift the responsibility for what occurs there.

“Well, we don’t hold them there,” Australia’s prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, told Australia’s Four Corners program in June 2016. “We don’t hold them there. That is not correct. We do not hold them there.”

Denmark has developed a particular interest in Australia’s policies for asylum seekers. The last election witnessed the rise to prominence of the Danish People’s party, a hard-right group that is aggressively against immigration, particularly Muslims. The conservative government in Denmark doesn’t have a working majority. They’re heavily reliant on the DPP and several smaller parties to retain power.

And the DPP’s views on immigration have had them encouraging the government and the public to turn to a place infamous for its hardline policies: Australia.

So in secret, and without the knowledge of the Danish public, the 29-member parliamentary committee that examines immigration in Denmark began to discreetly make inquiries about visiting Australia and Nauru to understand how the offshore detention system worked.

This was almost a year ago. Things appeared to be going smoothly, and Australia was incredibly welcoming. It was an opportunity to show the world that its policies were working, and were gathering interest globally.

The Nauruan government had given every indication it was finalised and prepared. They had provided a formal program of their tour. It listed meetings with the secretary for multicultural affairs, Barina Waqa, and the deputy secretary for refugee status determination, Shyla Vohra. A formal tour was planned for the Regional Processing Centre, and a bus was organised to take them from site to site.

But when the Guardian reported on the Nauru files, which highlighted devastating trauma and abuse inflicted on children held in offshore detention in the largest cache of leaked documents released from inside its immigration regime, there was renewed attention to the criticism of Australia’s detention system. It coincided with the secret trip finally being disclosed last week by the Danish radio station Radio24syv. It generated a wave of controversy over the cost of the visit and the broader secrecy around it. Australians may be used to secrets, but the Danish are not. The trip would no longer be a discreet one.

The increasing attention on Nauru and Australia, and some of the comments from Schmidt-Nielsen and Mark, appear to have signalled a turnaround from the Nauruan government. Why they would do so at such a late stage remains a mystery.

“It was unacceptable and anti-democratic and I suppose everyone in the delegation was really surprised,” Schmidt-Nielsen said. “If they didn’t want us to go you would assume they would have denied access before we came all the way to Australia.”



Although it was frustrating for them, the trip was far from fruitless for at least some members. The delegation did have the opportunity to speak with a large number of high-profile Australian immigration officials. They also met the assistant minister for immigration, Alex Hawke, as well as organisations such as Save the Children and the Australian Human Rights Commission.

It gave them the opportunity to try to understand more about the relationship between Australia and Nauru, and how the system worked.

The Nauru files: cache of 2,000 leaked reports reveal scale of abuse of children in Australian offshore detention Read more

“It’s still completely unclear for me who has actually got the legal responsibility for what is going on in Nauru,” Schmidt-Nielsen said. “Is it Australia? Is it the government of Nauru? Is it a shared responsibility, and if so what does that mean?”

It also gave them the opportunity to ask some tougher questions of the Australian officials.

“I asked about the Nauru files, several times. Every time the answer was ‘all of the cases are being looked into and this is just a symptom of us having a really good reporting system’.”

She continued: “I said ‘do you know of any cases where assault and child abuse were actually being investigated, someone being prosecuted?’ And I have been asking that for a lot of time, and nobody has answered. One time when I asked, they said ‘I don’t know’. That was the closest I got to an answer.”

Their responses were of equal surprise to Mark.

“You can sit at one meeting and they will talk all about how much they care about children,” he said. “But then you ask if they know if children have been raped or abused on Nauru, ‘do you know if anything has happened to the people who did it?’

“And then the government in Australia just says ‘oh we don’t know’.”

It is unclear how much the Danish government will take on what the delegation learnt and saw in Australia for its own policies. In any case, while the parliamentary delegation was in Australia the Danish government made a surprise announcement; it would entirely cut the 500-person quota it placed on refugees for 2017. None would be resettled in Denmark next year.

In a very short trip, the parliamentary delegation did see a rare glimpse of Australia’s detention system – although perhaps not the one they hoped for.

“For me it is just one big show,” Mark said. “A symbol to the world that says ‘don’t come here’.”