Advocates worried refugees being denied rights at Nauru

The first group to arrive up here on the coast was in November. That was 12 people that were then transferred to Nauru. Then in February this year, another 39 men were found wondering the remote Aboriginal community of Beagle Bay and they were also transferred to Nauru. Then, just over the weekend, an unknown number of people were found in the northern Kimberley coast, around the same area as the first group in November. And those people we understand have since been transferred to Nauru. Now the Asylum Seek Resource Centre says it’s that second group, the 39 people. Found near Beagle Bay that reached out to them by e-mail. So they made contact with that group. After that they launched a process of assessing their welfare, finding out the conditions on Nauru. And it’s through those conversations that they’ve now got a list of things that they believe or that they say, you know does not stand up and and it shows that their human rights aren’t being upheld. Now the men have named several different things. The 1st is that they say that when they arrived on the island they had their smartphones taken off them and they were given basic cell phones with no. You know, mobile credit or service. So they they’re not being given the opportunity or the option to contact their families back home or to contact, you know, any other human rights organisations. The second thing they say is that the men are not being given access to adequate mental health support, specifically trauma informed counseling. The third is that they say when they’re accessing shared computers that there’s restricted access to websites, including access to websites like the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. And other human rights organisations. And of course, overall, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre has highlighted their concerns around the fact that the men are showing increasing levels of mental health distress. They said that some of the men have expressed suicidal ideations and that, you know, many of the men are concerned that they haven’t been able to contact their family and they’re unsure. They’ve told ASRC of what their future holds on the island or, you know, when or what might happen to them.