Immigration staff are looking into allegations female asylum seekers were forced to strip by guards in exchange for showers

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, has said if allegations that Nauru detention centre staff are sexually exploiting female asylum seekers are correct he will be “pretty damn cross”.



The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has asked Morrison for an urgent inquiry after her office was contacted by detainees claiming female asylum seekers had been forced to strip by guards in exchange for showers.

One female asylum seeker said guards turned off the water in bathrooms and pressured women to expose their naked bodies if they wanted more than two minutes of shower time.

The asylum seekers also alleged a male guard threatened to hunt down a woman for sex once she was released into the Nauru community.

Another woman accused an unnamed Australian guard, who she said was no longer working at the centre, of propositioning at least five children and teenage asylum seekers for sex six months ago.

While the matter had been referred to Morrison’s department for investigation the minister said there was “little or no substantiation” of the allegations raised by Hanson-Young.

“You don’t just get to go out there and make a whole range of wild allegations and then have people assume it’s true,” he told Fairfax radio on Tuesday.

“I want to know if it’s true and that’s what my officers in the department are looking at.

“I wouldn’t want to see any of those things which are alleged taking place and I’d be pretty damn cross about it if that were the case,” he said.

Hanson-Young said in Canberra the allegations had been raised by the asylum seekers with their case managers.