Evidence that a child asylum seeker detained on Nauru was sexually assaulted by a member of the detention centre staff has raised further questions about the safety of children held in Australia’s offshore detention regime.



A number of witness accounts and the final investigation report obtained by Guardian Australia reveal that in November last year a cleaner employed by the detention centre manager Transfield Services grabbed the genitals of an asylum seeker boy understood to be in his mid-teens.

Two witness reports, one marked “sexual assault”, state the male cleaner, whom Guardian Australia understands to be a local employee, was then observed grabbing himself in the groin and shouting “jiggy jiggy” at the boy after an altercation between them.

After the assault, the cleaner was then observed by other staff members “talking and laughing” at the teenager, who was said to have pushed the cleaner in response.

The revelations follow a confidential report written by five independent clinical experts, obtained and published by Guardian Australia, which stated there was no clear child protection framework inside the detention centre or on Nauru at all, and raised serious concerns that children were at “significant risk” of sexual assault.

Serious allegations of physical and verbal assaults against children by detention centre staff were also reported by contractors in March this year and Guardian Australia has also seen further internal email correspondence from the Nauru detention centre, written as late as May, outlining child protection concerns for the 190 children detained on Nauru.

The Transfield investigation report states that the Nauru police were contacted over the sexual assault but the child, who was interviewed in the presence of his mother, did not press charges. The cleaner was removed “indefinitely” from the centre and a spokesman for Transfield said he had been dismissed.

Guardian Australia has been told by sources working in the centre that many asylum seekers fear repercussions to their protection claims if they pursue allegations of mistreatment inside the centre.

A spokesman for Transfield maintained that the reports only contained “allegations” but the final investigation included an admission from the cleaner that “his hand did come into contact with the complainant’s genitals”.

Asked what child protection checks the cleaner underwent before being allowed to work in the centre, a Transfield spokesman responded: “All employees are required to sign a statutory declaration regarding their suitability for working with children at any location where persons under the age of 18 are known to be present.”

The spokesman said checks had been undertaken, but “we are not prepared to publicly discuss those”.

Asked if Transfield had confidence in impartiality of its investigation conducted into one of its employees, the spokesman responded: “We have the utmost confidence in Wilson [the private security company subcontracted by Transfield on Nauru] and its ability to conduct an independent investigation.”

Transfield said it had suffered no financial penalties as a result of the case.

The immigration minister, Scott Morrison, did not respond to detailed questions by deadline.

Save the Children, which is contracted to provide child protection services in the Nauru detention centre, did not respond to detailed questions about what counselling the boy received after the assault and whether it was satisfied with its ability to protect children detained on Nauru, but issued this statement: “The protection of children on Nauru is our number one priority and we have a zero tolerance [for] child abuse.”



The Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the report was “extremely concerning”.

“As long as Nauru stays open, children will be at risk,” she said. “Children should never have been locked up in the middle of a phosphate mine on Nauru and the fact that they are being exposed to the threat of sexual assault is entirely unacceptable.”

