Guards on Manus Island are locking asylum seekers in solitary confinement at a rate of nearly three a week, and holding them without any means of communication for up to four days.

One man on the island has been locked in the notorious secret “Chauka” unit for “misbehaving” detainees seven times in six months, according to official camp management documents – including once being taken straight from Chauka to be medically evacuated to Australia in a life-threatening condition.



Six other men have been taken into the Chauka solitary confinement unit on more than one occasion.



Teenagers are also held in solitary. Six 19-year-olds have been placed in Chauka.



Photograph: Nick Evershed

An analysis of detention centre compound movements obtained by Guardian Australia shows asylum seekers were put in solitary confinement in Chauka 74 times during the 25 weeks between 23 May and 17 November this year.



Officially known as the Managed Accommodation Area, Chauka is removed from the main detention centre, and does not feature on any official maps of the island’s detention infrastructure. Its nickname comes from the chauka bird, a member of the honeyeater family native to Manus Island alone. The bird is featured on the Manussian flag.



It is several hundred metres from the main camp and consists of three shipping containers arranged in a triangle. Each shipping container is bare save for a single bed.



There are no windows and only one way out, past a sentry post manned 24 hours a day.



Detainees who have been in Chauka say it is oppressively hot. Temperatures are above 30C almost every day of the year on Manus, and humidity is above 90%.



Those held in Chauka have no access to phones or the internet. Psychologists are allowed to assess those taken into Chauka, but the decision to put them there is made by security staff.

Detainees are usually put in solitary confinement for 24 hours, but detentions of two or three days in Chauka are not uncommon. One man was held for four full days, more than 96 hours.



Guidelines for the use of isolation units in mainland detention require any detention beyond 24 hours to be approved by the Department of Immigration.



Guardian Australia has asked both Transfield, the private company contracted to manage the Manus Island detention centre, and the Australian government, to see the guidelines regarding offshore detention and the use of isolation. Both have refused to provide it.



“I was held in Chauka isolation for three days,” one asylum seeker told Guardian Australia in a translated interview from the island. “I was in a very bad state, I was very distressed, and dehydrated. I cried out for help, over and over, but no-one can hear you from that place.”



Ben Pynt from human rights advocacy organisation Humanitarian Research Partners said the long-term effects of solitary confinement were similar to torture: post-traumatic stress disorder, heightened anxiety and heightened sensitivity to stimuli or to people. He described Chauka as a secret punishment cell.



“It has immediate impacts on everybody who goes in there. People I have spoken to have come out anxious or depressed, or just inconsolable, some have just refused to talk about it. In terms of longer-term effects, some people take a longer time to crack than others, but everybody cracks in the end.”



Pynt said Chauka was known by all detainees on Manus.



“Chauka is used as a threat to control asylum seekers. Even the suggestion of being sent to Chauka is enough to make people comply.”



Another separate compound, known as the Supported Accommodation Area, is used as a respite compound for vulnerable inmates, those who are feeling threatened or unsettled, or who are experiencing sexual or physical aggression against them.



“Chauka is the exact opposite. It is punishment. It is where people are taken to be out of sight, out of mind. No one sees what happens in there, and it’s very hard to know,” said Pynt.



Peter Young, the former director of mental health services for International Health and Medical Services, the medical service provider on Manus, said many of those placed in solitary confinement were expected to already be suffering mental health problems – such as depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder – from experiences in their home country or as a result of their detention.



“And they are put in a situation that is making their conditions worse. In many cases people protesting against the conditions they are being held in, a protest which is a non-violent and legitimate expression of dissent. But dissent is not tolerated so these people are removed, they are disappeared from the community, so they have no access to their fellows, who might be some support in their distress.”



Young said short-term isolation under supervision could be a legitimate practice for managing people who need to be separated from the general community “for a very short period of time, for their own safety or well-being”.



“This is not that. This is being used specifically for punishment and for behaviour modification.”



A Transfield spokesman declined to answer questions regarding the use of Chauka, instead directing Guardian Australia to the immigration minister Scott Morrison’s office. The minister’s spokesman did not return repeated calls from Guardian Australia.



The government has previously conceded Chauka exists, saying: “The managed accommodation area is for transferees who present as a threat to others or themselves or preventing the continuance of an offence or to prevent injury or harm to themselves or others.



“The Chauka compound is used only for as long as is necessary to prevent such events and for the shortest practicable time or to enable sufficient support.”

