This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Confidential documents from inside Australia’s offshore detention centre on Manus Island reveal bleak and brutal conditions inside, including persistently high rates of self-harm, repeated suicide attempts, regular violent and sexual assaults, and warnings of an emerging culture of drug use by staff and detainees.

Incident reports obtained by the Guardian show that on several occasions, four men in detention on Manus have attempted suicide and self-harm in a single day. In one week, 16 self-harm and suicide attempts were recorded by authorities.

Internal working documents show a deteriorating state of mental health for many refugees and asylum seekers detained on the Papua New Guinean island. Medical reports obtained by the Guardian and revealed here in redacted form detail incidents of psychosis, hallucinations, refusal to eat or drink, and of complete withdrawal from communication.



Recent deterioration in mental state … Placed on HI SME due to increased distress related to auditory/visual/tactile hallucinations that REDACTED has been experiencing with increasing frequency. Continues to experience distressing hallucinations of a man trying to kill him.

Several refugees and asylum seekers have made sustained and repeated attempts to kill themselves, the documents show. Internal documents for Broadspectrum, the private company that manages the Manus site on behalf of the Australian government, detail three levels of “Whiskey watch” – close observation of people deemed to be at most risk of killing themselves.



“Depending on the assessed risk the Whiskey team monitor the movements and presentation of the transferee either through a constant line of sight (HIGH), 30 minute observations (MODERATE), or three-hourly observations (ONGOING).”

It is common for several refugees to be on “high” watch simultaneously. Shift documents show that people at serious risk of self-harm have to be kept within “arm’s length” of a guard for 24 hours, even when bathing or sleeping. If refugees on “high” watch speak to anyone, go anywhere, or do anything, it must be recorded by guards.

Despite the extreme levels of surveillance within the camp, suicide attempts remain common, the documents show.

Two episodes of self-harm over the past 24 hours, latest at 1300 hrs 20/8/16. Long history of unstable behaviour with multiple episodes of self-harm, aggression, violence and other anti-social traits. Self lacerated … requiring suturing by the IHMS medical team at the clinic following a Code Blue. Reviewed by IHMS MH and commenced on High SME.

Overdose … this morning @ 0400 hrs in Delta compound. Transferred to IHMS medical and remains an inpatient for observation. IHMS MHN review: Client reported that he did not want ‘to be saved, I just want to die’. Described impulsive behaviour and thoughts.

Reported that he has no current plan to end his life but ‘it will come later’. Ongoing thoughts of suicide.

Guards are issued with “cut-down knives” to rescue refugees who attempt to hang themselves, and are instructed on how to remove hanging people and revive them. The Guardian has seen these instruction documents but has chosen not to publish them or their details.

PNG and Australian government officials announced this week that the closure of the Manus Island detention centre would begin this month. Demolition of the first compounds will begin on 28 May, and all refugees and asylum seekers will be removed by 31 October.

Revealed: year-long campaign to make conditions harsher for Manus refugees Read more

The Guardian revealed on Wednesday that Broadspectrum and Wilson Security have waged a year-long campaign to make the detention centre more inhospitable, in an effort to coerce people to progress through the assessment and resettlement processes and leave the centre, despite acknowledging they would face danger outside.

The four and a half years of the Manus detention centre’s second iteration have been marked by violence, including one asylum seeker being murdered by guards, several deaths, including two because of alleged medical neglect, and regular protests, violent outbreaks and clashes, such as the rampage on Good Friday during which “drunken soldiers”, according to police, opened fire on the detention centre.



Manus Island’s notorious Chauka confinement section, a series of shipping containers arranged as an isolation unit about 400 metres from the rest of the detention centre, has been closed after consistent reports of violence and inhumane treatment.



But newly revealed documents shed light on the treatment of the refugees who were forcibly taken there, and detail injuries suffered.

While in Chauka, X was instructed to sit on the (dirt) floor. When his brother was carried in 15 minutes later, X thought he was dead and became agitated. The security guards reportedly responded by bashing and pushing X, tearing his shirt in the process. X was reportedly then forced to the floor and his hands tied tight behind his back which hurt his shoulder and still causes pain. Around 15h00 X having had a brace placed around his neck, was brought to IHMS with his brother, indications from IHMS are that X’s wrenched shoulder is an injury consistent with having been restrained.

According to staff guidelines, refugees and asylum seekers taken to Chauka could be held incommunicado – in solitary confinement and without the right to a phone call – for up to 48 hours.

Reports of assaults by staff members on refugees, and by refugees on staff members, are common, the documents show.

A series of complaints detail refugees being restrained in handcuffs and then beaten by staff, while allegedly being racially abused.

During unrest in the centre in January 2015, a report by detention centre security reads:

He was removed from his room in Delta compound by Wilson Security officers and beaten in the chest … whilst being removed, a female officer ... reportedly commented ‘Africans, they deserve to be treated like this, they deserve to be finished’.”

Another complaint, registered by the International Committee for the Red Cross, said an asylum seeker taken to prison for taking part in a hunger -strike “reportedly heard Australian security staff instructing PNG officers to beat the asylum seekers”.

This complaint was found by an internal department investigation to be “unsubstantiated based on available evidence” because no video evidence could be found of the alleged offence. “No further action required at this stage.”

Sexual predation – between guards and detainees and among detainees themselves – has lessened with the closure of the notorious P Block, known as the “rape dungeon”, where vulnerable detainees were forcibly taken to be violently sexually assaulted.

But a culture of bullying, of attacks by stronger detainees on those who are weaker, remains prevalent.

One refugee has made upwards of 30 reports of sexual harassment, assault and rape. His repeated requests to be transferred to a secure section of the detention centre, where he can be isolated from others, have been refused.

He states that he has been suffering from panic attacks, sexual assault, sexual harassment and fighting with other residents to defend himself against these unwanted advances which are limiting his daily lifestyle. He is asking why there has been no repercussion for the perpetrator of the harassments, whilst he has had to limit his own behaviour as a consequence.

Those held within the Manus Island detention centre, and independent rights organisations that have assessed it, say it has all the hallmarks of a prison environment.

It remains – despite the reforms that made it a partially “open” centre – a militarised, violent place.

The past several months have been marked by riots, mainly over food and restrictions on movement. Up to 50 refugees have been involved in fighting with security staff and have alleged they are deliberately provoked into violence.

On several occasions all security staff have had to abandon the detention centre and retreat to the outside.

Armed police, who opened fire on detainees during the riots of 2014, are regularly brought in to deal with “non-compliant” detainees, who are usually taken to Lorengau jail and held for several days, before – usually – being fined and released.

On Good Friday, after a dispute about the use of a naval base soccer field near the detention centre, a mob of PNG naval personnel ran riot, trying to storm the detention centre, and shot at refugees and staff hiding inside accommodation blocks. There were reports that a PNG navy vehicle tried to ram the centre’s gates.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest The detention centre on Manus Island, shown in a still from the 2016 Australian documentary Chasing Asylum

While refugees are regularly arrested, expatriate detention centre staff never are, to the ongoing chagrin of those they detain and their PNG colleagues.

It is a source of underlying, but significant, tension that only local staff members – two Manus locals – were charged with the 2014 murder of Reza Barati, despite witness evidence and testimony to police that up to 15 people, including expatriate guards who were named to police – were involved in jumping on the prone asylum seeker’s head.

No expatriate worker has ever been charged with a crime on Manus, despite allegations of serious offences.

In 2015 three Wilson security staff from New Zealand and Australia were alleged to have drugged and gang-raped a local female staff member. They were flown off the island and out of PNG before police could interview them and have not been returned, despite promises from the Australian government they would be.

Other detention centre staff have been accused of drunkenly crashing cars, assaulting local people and burgling local businesses. No one has been charged.

The Manus detention centre is also home to an entrenched, and growing, drug culture. Staff members have been caught with drugs inside the detention centre and have been alleged to be dealing.

Churches demand Manus Island asylum seekers be evacuated Read more

The staff member who was allegedly gang-raped says she was plied with prescription medication, and detainees have reported an open blackmarket trade in marijuana inside the steel fences.



Internal documents show one staff member confessed to fearing the centre’s drug-testing regime because he was regularly abusing prescription medications. He was also reported for telling refugees about his “drug and gambling” benders when off duty in Australia.

Another staff member was accused of being “high on drugs” at work, another for coming to work while she “reeks of marijuana”.

Yet another staff member was flown off Manus for being caught with “contraband” inside the detention centre.



Those detained inside the centre report a brisk trade in marijuana, brought in from elsewhere on the island, and exchanged – usually for cigarettes.

• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78. In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. Hotlines in other countries can be found here