Friday, 11th July 2014
By Paige Taylo
A FORMER director of offshore processing in Australia’s immigration detention camps claims asylum-seekers are coached and encouraged to attempt self-harm by refugee advocates who then use the incidents as political capital.
Greg Lake made his strident attack on “certain refugee advocates” whose behaviour “is at odds with their mandate as advocates” as the Refugee Action Coalition backed down from claims in a press release on Monday that up to “10 mothers in the family camp have attempted suicide in the last two days on Christmas Island”.
Refugee coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told The Australian yesterday that women in the family camp wanted to get off Christmas Island for the mainland, though some said they would be happy to go to Nauru.
“I probably shouldn’t have said attempted suicide,” he said.
“People drinking concoctions of shampoo or detergent generally don’t die — was it a drastic cry for help? Yes, it was, and it remains that way.”
Extra guards continued to be stationed in the island’s family camp yesterday to keep watch on women who had either threatened, attempted or carried out self-harm during the past week.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has rubbished claims published in Fairfax Media that up to 12 mothers had attempted suicide so their orphaned babies would be raised in Australia.
The government has described the self-harm as minor. While asylum-seekers are flown to mainland hospitals in the event of medical emergency, the only person to leave the Australian territory this week for medical reasons was a Christmas Island resident.
The asylum-seeker women on watch at the camp this week include a young Iranian who does not have children; she spent time in the camp’s medical centre after leaping from what guards have described as the flat roof of one-storey transportable accommo-dation on Sunday. She had recently returned from medical treatment on the mainland.
Mr Rintoul said he had communicated with the women before they harmed themselves but denied encouraging them to do so or having prior knowledge that they would.
“Of course not,” he said.
“There may have been some indication of people heading this way — they were extremely worried about the presence of the Serco guards and the police (over the weekend).
“It’s clear to me now that Serco was expecting a situation.”
The tense atmosphere continued in Christmas Island’s family camp as authorities prepared to send more asylum-seekers to Nauru. Tonight a group of detainees is scheduled to leave the island for Nauru, and more frequent flights are expected as more accommodation comes online.
Mr Lake said in his time at what is now called the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, he grew disgusted by the actions of some refugee advocates who were clearly urging asylum-seekers to self-harm as a form of protest so they could put out a press release about it.
He said the advocates communicated with the asylum-seekers by Facebook message, phone and email. While the department did not read asylum-seekers’ communications, he said what was going on was obvious and often emerged later in interviews with detainees who had hurt themselves on purpose.
He said he believed some advocates communicated with a ringleader, who then “stood over” other detainees to compel them to make a statement through self-harm.
“There are certain prominent advocates who will coach and encourage asylum-seekers to self-harm as a political protest and it makes me very upset and I believe it is at odds with their mandate as advocates,” Mr Lake said.
“The problem is, outside of the government or public service, people aren’t aware of their tactics.”
Mr Lake, who resigned as an immigration official in April last year, claimed that one of his last tasks on Nauru was to interview eight asylum-seekers who had joined a lip-sewing protest, but who had been bullied into it by a detainee who was in communication with a refugee advocate.
“These guys didn’t want anything to do with it,” he said.
“They only did it because they were pushed by the ringleader.”
The Australian has learned that refugee advocates and others working inside the Christmas Island compounds are linking this week’s self-harm incidents to a recent decision by Mr Morrison to allow three vulnerable Somali girls to leave the camp and live in Sydney’s west.
