Psych reports blocked

Refugees in the Mediterranean Sea. Photo / AP

Medical staff treating asylum seekers on Nauru were told to withhold details of psychological effects of living in detention from mental health reports, a psychiatrist claims.

Peter Young, who had responsibility for the mental health of asylum seekers in all Australian-run detention centres from 2011 to 2014, says the Immigration Department told doctors it did not want to hear about mental harm caused by being detained.

"We were repeatedly told ... it was unacceptable to put in reports to the department that people's mental health had been harmed by being in detention in Nauru," he told a Senate committee investigating allegations of abuse at the facility.

Young, who has previously accused the department of covering up allegations of sexual abuse at the centre on Nauru, said he refused to change his reports on that advice.

His staff frequently complained their care was being undermined by pushback from the Immigration Department, he said.

He blames in part the "overriding concern" of protecting the institution for abuse at the facility and claims medical recommendations were frequently not accepted and delayed.

He claimed the department told him medical recommendations to evacuate asylum seekers to Australia for treatment would "undermine" the offshore detention policy and allow access to lawyers.

Further, following the fatal riots at the facility in 2013, department officials said mainland evacuations for treatment would not be approved "anytime soon" even if the asylum seeker had no involvement in the violence, Young told the committee.

"That was quite appalling when we knew we had a number of people on waiting lists," he said, adding he was told all asylum seekers were responsible for the riots because they were all there.

Young is the former director of mental health services for International Health and Mental Services, a private contractor employed by the immigration department.

- AAP