Australian border agency admits failures over Nauru abuse claims

The Australian Border Force admitted internally that it failed to respond appropriately to allegations of sexual assault and abuse on Nauru but did not disclose these findings to a parliamentary inquiry.

A tranche of internal emails obtainedunder freedom of information laws reveals the reaction of the agency after the Guardian published leaked reports on the abuse of children in Australian offshore detention. The agency deployed at least eight Australian Border Force officers to work on it, and contracted staff to conduct forensic work and data analysis.

The internal emails show the Department of Immigration and Border Protection set up a special taskforce to assess whether incidents detailed in the Nauru files were appropriately responded to.

The taskforce’s final report identifies six incidents with a severity rating of “major” where the immediate action taken was not deemed appropriate. This includes two incidents of an alleged assault on a minor, and one incident involving an alleged sexual assault of a minor. There is also one incident of self-harm where immediate action was not taken.

These internal findings were not disclosed in the department’s written submission to a parliamentary inquiry, set up in response to the publication of the files.

“The department continues to assist and support service providers, the government of Nauru, and local Nauruan authorities to support continuous improvement to incident response and reporting practices, including referrals for additional services or to the Nauru Police Force in cases of possible criminal wrongdoing,” the department’s submission said.