Situation in topside Detention Nauru (run by IOM)

18.May.03 - As I have explained the deteriorating situation of detention in my previous letters, the situation has not improved yet. DIMIA is consecutively persuading the detainees to return to their countries. In a meeting asylum seekers asked DIMIA 'Why you pressure us to return to Afghanistan? Do you want to send us by force?" DIMIA officer said "I hope you will not be in those people and it is better for you to not lose this chance and decide before government take any action."

Beside the doubtful future, we are confronting many problems imposed be Australian government such as health problems, water problem, food problems and so on.

1 Medical Care:

The level of medical care is too low. some patients need serious medical treatment such as waist pain. leg pain and so forth. Eye allergy is aggravating. some people have lost their eyesight and need to see an eye specialist. they have been waiting to have their eyes checked since they arrived in Nauru. There are over 60 persons who need to see a dentist but the dentist only see two patients in a week in Nauru hospital. Once anyone gets dental problem should wait for 8 months to see the dentist.
2 Food:

We are not provided appropriate food. We are provided rotten vegetables and beans full of insects. We are provided one apple or one orange in our lunch but we haven't had any fruits for the last 10 days. When we complained about food IOM's head officer, Cy Winter told us if anyone finds more than five insects in his meal then he has to complain. According to those who have been in detention centres in Australia and in Christmas Island, the foods provided there is not available in Nauru detention.

3 Water:

Still we are not provided enough water for washing. There is salty water in bathrooms just for four to six hours a day. Sometimes it is too salty and is not suitable for washing and taking bath. We have access to clean water one or two hours a day which runs in 8 small taps. that is not enough for 400 people and even sometimes it is hard to brush our teeth because it is hard to get a chance to fill up the bottles and buckets. We drink the rain water collected from the tennis court that is why we are suffering different sicknesses such as stomach-ache , sore throat and so forth.

4 PRISON:

We can not talk about our rights. Whenever we put pressure on IOM for fulfilment of our legal demands, IOM send us directly to prison. We must follow whatever IOM and DIMIA tell us otherwise we are put in Nauru prison. The detainees are treated in a very affrontive and inhuman ways when they are put in Nauru prison. When a detainee is sent to prison, first Nauruan police make him naked and take all his clothes then lock him in prison. a detainee was affected by dengue fever while he was in prison.

Journalists are not allowed to come to Nauru. If any journalist gets a chance to come to Nauru then it is difficult to visit detention. No one is allowed to enter in detention except government agencies and IOM. So we don't have access to any journalist to speak about our situation and convey our messages to the people.