Five-year-old girl attempted suicide in fear of going back to Nauru, father says
An Iranian asylum seeker says his five-year-old daughter had been attempting suicide because she does not want to go back to Nauru.
A leaked report from Save the Children dated July 2014 said the girl was exhibiting sexualised behaviour while she was on Nauru.
The Moss review into conditions on Nauru mentioned several cases of sexualised behaviour by minors.
The report said the girl's sexualised behaviour was inconsistent with developmentally appropriate behaviour and exploration of body parts.
"Back in Nauru, the officers for Save the Children reported to me and said that they found her with her underwear and pants off, and in order to make sure they took her for examination to make sure if she had been hurt or assaulted in any way," the girl's father said.
He said doctors examined his child on Nauru and found no evidence that she had been sexually assaulted, but that she later tried to kill herself.
"According to the consultation I have had with the mental health doctors and professionals here, they're telling me that she doesn't have good memories and good experiences from Nauru," he said.
"And with the sort of remembering and ... the sort of possibility of going back there, this is why she acts out like this."
Immigration Minister refused request to move family: father
The father said the family was moved off Nauru six months ago, not because of his daughter's vulnerabilities, but because he needed specialised medical treatment for his eyes and neck.
He says he is still waiting to see a specialist and the family has been told they will be returned to Nauru after he is treated.
He said mental health professionals and doctors in Darwin recommended the family should be moved out of detention because of his daughter's state.
But he said he had been told the family would not be moved into community detention because the request had been rejected by the Immigration Minister.
"I even begged them and pleaded with them to let my daughter live with an uncle. And even though I asked them, because they're in Australia, that request was also rejected," the man said.
A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the department could not comment on placement decisions for individual detainees.
The spokesperson said people were often transferred to the Australian mainland for medical treatment and returned to Nauru.
Barrister and refugee advocate Julian Burnside says if the child is returned to Nauru she could be able to sue the Government.
"The Minister really should be paying close attention to what the mental health professionals are recommending because it is a very serious thing to say that they will send a child back to Nauru where they know that child has been damaged and they know the child is trying to kill herself, rather than be returned to the place where she was damaged," Mr Burnside said.
"This sounds to me very much like a government which is about to act with conscious negligence in relation to the care of a child."
The Immigration Minister's spokesperson said people were placed in detention arrangements that were appropriate for their circumstances and that the department considered a range of factors, including mental health support, when considering whether community detention is appropriate.
