This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Save the Children staff on Nauru have faced a second series of raids in a further bid to find journalists’ sources at the immigration detention centre on the island.

On Thursday morning the Nauruan police force sent in a team of officers who searched buildings at RPC3 (Refugee Processing Centre 3) in the detention centre.

Laptops, personal phones, desktop computers and other devices were seized after searches of the Save the Children recreation office and the welfare tent at the centre.

The police had a warrant, but it was unclear what its terms were and what offence they were investigating. Guardian Australia understands Save the Children have not been made aware of the legal basis for the search warrant.

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Police made similar raids last Saturday.

Earlier this month the Nauruan government was angered by a Guardian Australia report which disclosed emails from the Nauruan operations manager Berilyn Jeremiah about local journalists being allowed in to the detention centre.

Following the first search warrant the Australian immigration department said it was not made aware of the raids, and referred questions to the Nauruan government.

In a statement, a Save the Children spokeswoman said: “A second search warrant was executed by the Nauru Police Force this morning on a Save the Children office in Nauru, involving the seizure of some computers.

“Save the Children has conducted a full internal audit that found there was no evidence the leaked email, which is understood to be the target of the warrants, came from our staff. Save the Children has utmost confidence that our staff have acted at all times with great integrity, compassion and professionalism in their work supporting vulnerable children and families.

“We continue to fully co-operate with Nauru police on this matter, and our priority remains working to mitigate the harmful impacts of offshore immigration detention, to the extent that the circumstances allow.

“We continue to provide around the clock support to children and their families whose care has been entrusted to us, and remain focussed on ensuring their care is transitioned smoothly to new service providers when our contract expires at the end of October. This is of course made harder by these kinds of disruptions.”

Just over a year ago nine Save the Children staff were summarily dismissed over unsubstantiated allegations they were facilitating protests and sending confidential information off the island.

A review into the allegations and other serious reports of assault on the island by former integrity commissioner Philip Moss found their dismissal should be reviewed.