Island of Despair

“On Nauru, the Australian Government runs an open-air prison designed to inflict as much suffering as necessary to stop some of the world’s most vulnerable people from trying to find safety in Australia,” said Anna Neistat, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, one of the few people who has managed to enter the remote and secretive island to investigate human rights abuses.

Based on months of research, including interviews with more than 100 people in Nauru and Australia, Amnesty International’s report brings together further revelations of abuse with existing accounts to reveal the full scale of Australia’s system of deliberate cruelty.

“The distressing and heartbreaking accounts of deteriorating mental health, discrimination and violent attacks, sexual violence, inadequate medical care and harassment that I heard from mothers, fathers, adults and children as young as six, paint a picture of people driven to absolute despair,” said Anna Neistat.