On 21 April 2017, the Senate Standing Committees on Legal and Constitutional Affairs delivered damning findings from a seven-month inquiry into allegations of abuse, self-harm and neglect of asylum seekers detained on Manus Island and Nauru. For the period under investigation, ‘first and foremost’ the Australian government had to acknowledge that it controlled the offshore immigration detention centres, the report said – ‘to suggest otherwise is fiction’. The findings of the inquiry follows years of the Australian government attempting to shirk responsibility for detainees in Manus and Nauru immigration facilities, despite it paying for all associated costs, engaging contractors, owning all major assets, and being responsible for negotiating third-party resettlements. Additionally, Australia’s immigration department is the final decision maker regarding specialist health services and medical transfers.
You can read the report here.