More than 40 health workers and humanitarian staff challenge the government to prosecute them for disclosing abuses at detention centres

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Social workers, doctors, nurses, teachers and humanitarian staff who have worked inside Australia’s detention centres have united in an unprecedented show of defiance against new laws that could see workers in detention centres jailed for speaking out about abuses.

More than 40 staff who have worked at detention centres on Manus Island, Nauru and across the Australian mainland have spoken out on the same day that a new offence comes into force that criminalises the disclosure of information.

Why we spoke out: former detention centre workers explain Read more

The signatories have challenged the prime minister, Tony Abbott, and the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, to prosecute them for speaking out about human rights abuses of asylum seekers in Australia’s care.

The new offence gives the immigration department secretary a broader discretion to determine what kind of “protected information” would be subject to the offence, and also greater powers in determining to whom it could be applied.

Open letter on the Border Force Act: 'We challenge the department to prosecute' Read more

It could also potentially criminalise the recording of protected information. There are limited exceptions that could apply to medical staff, with the express consent of the newly formed Australian Border Force.

The open letter, obtained and published in full by Guardian Australia, is a direct challenge to the new disclosure offence, and an indictment of the policy of secrecy that the federal government has maintained over asylum-seeker matters.

The letter was circulated by Dr John-Paul Sanggaran and has gathered high-profile support from former staff in detention centres, including Dr Peter Young, Dr Hasantha Gunasekera, Professor Caroline de Costa, Alanna Maycock, Dr David Isaacs, Dr Grant Ferguson and Dr Alison Bleaney. The signatories have also outlined their reasons for signing the open letter separately.

The letter reads: “Today the Border Force Act comes into force. It includes provision for a two-year jail sentence for ‘entrusted persons’ such as ourselves if we continue to speak out about the deplorable state of human rights in immigration detention without the express permission of the minister for immigration and border protection. This strengthens the wall of secrecy which prevents proper public scrutiny.

“We have advocated, and will continue to advocate, for the health of those for whom we have a duty of care, despite the threats of imprisonment, because standing by and watching sub-standard and harmful care, child abuse and gross violations of human rights is not ethically justifiable.”



The letter said the signatories have seen “devastating effects of institutional self-protection and blindness to child abuse” that have manifested throughout the royal commission into institutional child sex abuse, and are determined “not to collude with a system that repeats these same mistakes”.

Read the open letter on the Border Force Act

The signatories acknowledge that in publishing the letter they may themselves be subject to prosecution under the act.

“We are aware that in publishing this letter we may be prosecuted under the Border Force Act and we challenge the department to prosecute so that these issues may be discussed in open court and in the full view of the Australian public,” it said.

The letter also points to the absence of adequate child protection frameworks in detention centres, a key point of focus at the Senate inquiry into serious allegations of sexual assault at the Nauru detention centre.

“If we witness child abuse in Australia we are legally obliged to report it to child protection authorities. If we witness child abuse in detention centres, we can go to prison for attempting to advocate for them effectively. Internal reporting mechanisms such as they are have failed to remove children from detention; a situation that is itself recognised as a form of systematic child abuse.”

Serious and repeated health issues have been identified in detention centres across Australia under successive governments. The letter says the immigration department “is aware of these problems and has for years failed to address them adequately”.



Over the past two years since the federal government adopted a policy of extreme secrecy relating to asylum-seeker policy, a growing chorus of voices has spoken out about abuses and poor conditions.

Following the Manus Island unrest that led to the death of Reza Barati, former G4S guard Martin Appleby said the former immigration minister, Scott Morrison, directly contributed to tensions on the island.

Dr Peter Young, the former medical director of mental health services at International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) says Australia’s detention regime was designed to make asylum seekers suffer.

Former Save the Children child protection worker Viktoria Vibhakar has outlined devastating cases of sexual and physical abuse of children as young as two on Nauru.

Caz Coleman, a former longstanding advisor to successive government’s on Australia’s asylum-seeker policies also spoke and said Australia’s detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru have failed.

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, last week signed new regulations outlining how the new disclosure offence under the Australian Border Force Act would operate.

The rules do permit some disclosures about the provision of services, identity and history of asylum seekers to external agencies such as the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and state and territory child protection authorities.

But the new rules have not included bodies such as the Australian Human Rights Commission or the commonwealth ombudsman, and the circumstances where disclosures can occur are generally limited to a series of narrow exemptions contained in the act.

Dutton wrote in the new rules: “Every day, the department and the Australian Border Force within it will create, receive and use critical and important information including intelligence and personal information. Much of this information will be sensitive and complex.

“It is therefore necessary that information secrecy and disclosure arrangements should be in place not only to protect information but also to enable the disclosure of information in appropriately controlled circumstances.”



