The healthcare providers for asylum seekers in Australian detention have been referred to the federal police over allegations it misled the immigration department about the quality of care.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young referred International Health and Medical Services (IHMS) to the police after a series of revelations published by Guardian Australia.

The allegations referred are:

four staff at Manus Island detention centre were working without police checks which were required by their agreement with the Australian government

three staff who had not obtained required police checks were omitted from monthly reports so IHMS continued to meet contractual targets

IHMS falsified medical complaint records to lead the government to believe they were meeting incident reporting targets

IHMS could not confirm all staff working in Perth had undergone Working with Children checks (WWCs)

Hanson-Young notes in the letter that failure to meet certain targets is an offence which carries financial penalties for IHMS but the company may have breached Australian law by allegedly giving false information and reports.

Failure to meet the obligation of requiring WWCs can be punished by financial penalties and imprisonment.

“I am concerned that these allegations indicate that IHMS is providing misleading information to the department of immigration in their reporting,” Hanson-Young writes in the letter to AFP commissioner Andrew Colvin.

“I am concerned that if this information is relied upon by the government, people depending upon the services of IHMS will receive sub-standard medical care.”

Hanson-Young has requested the AFP launch an investigation. The AFP has been contacted for comment.

Earlier this month Guardian Australia published a series of revelations, obtained through leaked documents, about how IHMS operated healthcare services in Australia’s detention centres.

The immigration department is examining the claims, with oversight from the minister for immigration and border protection, Peter Dutton, after Tony Abbott said they should be looked at. IHMS is also looking at the revelations.

Dutton has warned immigration contractors who do not perform could lose their work within the detention centres.

The documents revealed personal medical records of asylum seekers have been handed over by IHMS to Australia’s immigration department for “political purposes”, potentially in breach of privacy laws.



IHMS told staff to “grab from the excuse bag” when it failed to meet targets and there were significant risks to the health of asylum seekers when IHMS failed to meet targets.

IHMS also privately acknowledged fraud was inevitable as it tried to meet government targets.