Australian Government denies any knowledge of child abuse

Child protection staff were disturbed by sexualised behaviour among very young children. Photo / File

The federal Government has rejected claims by 23 former staff of the Nauru asylum-seeker detention centre that it was told about multiple allegations of child sexual abuse more than a year before it commissioned an inquiry.

In an open letter published on Tuesday, the 23 former teachers, social workers and child protection staff said the Government and Department of Immigration had "tolerated the physical and sexual assault of children, and the sexual harassment and assault of vulnerable women in the centre for more than 17 months".

The Government says it learned of the allegations only late last year, when it ordered a review by Philip Moss, a former Integrity Commissioner. At that time, it also expelled 10 Save the Children Australia staff from Nauru, accusing them of encouraging protests and self-harm and "coaching" asylum-seekers to concoct abuse allegations.

Moss, whose report was released last month, found nothing to substantiate those claims. He did uncover several dozen cases of alleged abuse, including rape, sexual and physical assault of children, guards trading marijuana for sex, and a guard demanding to see a female detainee naked in exchange for two minutes longer in the shower.

That prompted the Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton, to declare that he had "zero tolerance" for any form of sexual abuse. But the signatories to the open letter said that commitment was not reflected in "the attitude or actual response" of his officials.

They said that they had informed the Immigration Department about instances of abuse in reports, meetings and minutes going back to 2013, but no appropriate action was taken.

In an interview with ABC Television's Lateline programme, a former Save the Children worker, Viktoria Vibhakar, said the department was told about a girl aged under 11 who was sexually assaulted and tried to commit suicide. She was not removed from the centre until more than seven months later. The department was also notified about a boy who was assaulted by a Nauruan guard in November 2013, according to Vibhakar.

Officials left him in the camp, where he was assaulted again.

Child protection staff were disturbed by sexualised behaviour among very young children.

Dr Peter Young, former medical director of International Health and Medical Services, the private contractor employed by the government, said the secrecy surrounding the camp contributed to it being unsafe.

"You couldn't design a system that is more likely to result in abuse occurring," he told Fairfax Media.

The former staff say that children are still at risk in the centre, since Nauru has no mandatory system for reporting child abuse, nor does it require people working with children to undergo background checks.