'I want death, I need death': Leaked files reveal horror and abuse at Australian detention centre for asylum seekers

Thousands of incidents of sexual abuse, assault and attempted self-harm, many including children, were reported in two years at an Australian detention centre for asylum seekers, a newspaper has revealed.

Leaked documents published by the Guardian Australia unearth the extent of the abuse at the offshore centre on Nauru, one of two run by Australia on neighbouring South Pacific islands.

What happens behind the wire fences in Nauru is usually shrouded in secrecy, but these leaked files - the contents of which are direct eyewitness testimonies from guards, caseworkers, teachers and children protection - reveal the conditions the asylum seekers endure.

Australian officials said it was seeking to confirm all reports had been dealt with by Nauru police. "It's important to note many of these incident reports reflect unconfirmed allegations," a spokeswoman for Australia's Department of Immigration said.

• Australia's controversial immigration policy

Australia's hardline immigration policy, where illegal boat arrivals are stopped at sea and taken to Nauru or the sister camp on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, has been criticised by the United Nations and human rights groups.

Despite the number of refugees trying to reach Australia being a fraction of those seeking safety in Europe, asylum seekers are permanently refused entry and held longterm in the centre.

• The Nauru Dentention centre

On the last official count at the end of June, 442 people – 338 men, 55 women and 49 children – were held in the Nauru regional processing centre.

The other offshore centre, on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, was holding 854 people, all men.

• Sexual assault

The Guardian's report, which examined more than 2,000 incidents between August 2013 to October 2015, found that children bore the brunt of the abuse.

Children account for 18 per cent of roughly 500 detainees held on Nauru, but more than half of the 2,116 reports – a total of 1,086 incidents, or 51.3% – involve minors.

There were 59 reports of assaults on children in the period, and seven reports of sexual assaults. Some of the reports alleged abuse by guards against children, while there other reports of sexual advances by unknown men.

• Self-harm and trauma

The reports also show there were 30 incidents of self-harm among children and 159 of threatened self-harm involving minors.

The impact on mental health, particularly on children, was shown from the files. In one report from January 2015, a charity worker documented a teenage girl's struggle to cope after her mother’s miscarriage.

The Save the Children worker wrote the girls was having “ongoing hallucinations from a ‘small person’.

“She is unsure if it is a man or women but has a dark face and is the size of a child.”

• "I want death, I need death"

The remaining reports involving children cover issues ranging from guards allegedly slapping children in the face to a guard laughing at a highly distressed girl who had sewn her lips together.

One of the leaked incident reports said a child had "written in her book that she was tired, doesn't like the camp and wants to die ... 'I want death, I need death'".

• Hygiene

The files show that detainees live in unsanitary conditions, with their tents frequently overrun by cockroaches.

Reports included a woman complaining she wasn't being provided with sanitary pads for her incontinence, while another reveals a female guard refused to let a child use the toilet, making her urinate on the ground where the guard allegedly shone her torch on the girl's genitals.

• Will the leaked files bring change?

Refugee advocates said the leaked reports show the urgent need to end Australia's offshore detention policy and that asylum seekers must be given medical and psychological support.

"It is clear from these documents, and our own research, that many have been driven to the brink of physical or mental breakdown by their treatment on Nauru," said Anna Neistat, senior director for research at Amnesty International.

UNICEF Australia issued a statement urging the Australian government to offer a "permanent resettlement solution for asylum seekers and refugees".

“There is undeniable, cumulative evidence that suggests that asylum seeker and refugee children are not safe under existing arrangements on Nauru. The Australian Government must take immediate action for children and their families to prevent further harm,” said Nicole Breeze, Director of Policy and Advocacy, UNICEF Australia.