Extract from The Guardian
Former employee subcontracted to Wilson Security claims surveillance
team followed Greens senator around island and set up post to watch her
hotel room
Guards at the Nauru detention centre conducted sweeping surveillance of Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young to monitor her movements on the island, a former employee has alleged.
In an extraordinary submission to a Senate inquiry into serious allegations of abuse and conditions at the Australian-run Nauru detention centre, a former employee subcontracted to security provider Wilson Security accused the company of engaging in serious misconduct.
The employee raises serious allegations about the security company, including about staff fabricating military backgrounds to gain employment, discrimination against Australian guards and evidence of planned uses of excessive force against asylum seekers.
The submission also contains a disturbing account of Wilson Security guards being tasked to conduct surveillance of Hanson-Young during a recent visit to the island.
“When Senator Sarah Hanson-Young visited Nauru, Wilson Security organised a team from ERT [emergency response team] to spy on her while she was on Nauru. This included following her around the island while she was outside of the OPCs [offshore processing centres] and setting up an observation post to watch her room at the Menen hotel,” it says.
The call sign used by the guards to identify Hanson-Young in their surveillance was “raven”, according to the former employee.
The author of the submission also said they had seen a video from the body camera worn by a Wilson Security guard shortly before major unrest occurred at the centre on 19 July 2013. They said the video showed guards discussing the growing unrest and saying that if something happens they will go to a compound at the centre “and take cunts down”.
“From seeing this video it was obvious to me that these Wilson guards were planning to use unreasonable force and assault the asylum seekers even before the riot started,” the submission said.
It added: “I strongly recommend the centre is shut down, the remaining asylum seekers be processed onshore and all the refugees that were released into the Nauruan community be brought to Australia.”
The name of the employee who submitted the submission has been withheld from publication by the Senate committee.
In a response to the submission Wilson Security said it strongly rejected allegations of a coverup of abuse of asylum seekers, of corruption, and of the organisation of a team to spy on Hanson-Young.
But it acknowledged that “despite our best efforts, there are individuals that do not do the right thing from time to time”.
In relation to the allegations of surveillance of Hanson-Young, it conceded that it was “aware of individuals who attended the Menen hotel” in a capacity that was “not authorised” at the same time as Hanson-Young was present. It said the individuals involved were subject to disciplinary action.
It also conceded that it was aware of one incident where an employee had lied about their background in the Australian defence force.
Submissions to the inquiry have continued to offer stinging rebukes of the centre and the overall management by the Australian immigration department and private companies contracted at the centre.
A submission was also received to the inquiry from Caz Coleman, who is one of the most senior advisers to successive governments on asylum seeker policy.
She previously sat on a council to advise the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, on asylum seeker policy, but was not reappointed when the panel was reformed in May after it lay empty for six months.
Coleman previously worked as the transitional contract manager for the Salvation Army (TSA) in the early management of the centre.
She outlined strong concerns about the overall direction of the centre, and said there was a “significant systemic failure” to manage the centre and transition to the community in collaboration with the Nauru government.
Coleman said: “The result was a lack of trust, poor communication, poor collaboration and a strong perception that the failure of TSA to perform adequately heightened the risk to clients and staff in the centre. Rather than collaboration there were clear examples of competition, undermining of TSA staff by other service providers and also hostility and non-cooperation from TSA staff toward other service providers.”
She outlined that the recent allegations of sexual assault and harassment that arose from the review into allegations at the centre by Philip Moss indicated that there was significant animosity between private contractors on the island.
“There is no question that without a collaborative, respectful and trusted relationship between providers, risk increases in a centre like Nauru. Without this collaboration, communication decreases and the essential elements of managing difficult clients and group events involving self-harm or other harm are compromised,” she wrote.
She also reiterated strong concerns that have previously been raised about the “effective ban” on providing information to asylum seekers on Nauru at the direction of the immigration department.
“This directive by the department of immigration to all service providers effectively meant staff could not engage in responding to questions from clients about what was happening to them, what process were they likely to undergo, or respond in a timely way to the confusion that was inevitable amongst clients when there was a press release or other asylum-related news item from Australia,” she said.
The Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales submitted to the inquiry that Australia “appears to be in breach of its obligations to respect, protect and ensure the human rights of children within the Nauru RPC on a continuing basis”.
It called for the suspension of transfers of children to the Nauru detention centre until the Australian government could guarantee the safety of asylum seekers there.
The ongoing Senate inquiry is scheduled to hold further hearings to hear from the immigration department and former employees at the detention centre.
In an extraordinary submission to a Senate inquiry into serious allegations of abuse and conditions at the Australian-run Nauru detention centre, a former employee subcontracted to security provider Wilson Security accused the company of engaging in serious misconduct.
The employee raises serious allegations about the security company, including about staff fabricating military backgrounds to gain employment, discrimination against Australian guards and evidence of planned uses of excessive force against asylum seekers.
The submission also contains a disturbing account of Wilson Security guards being tasked to conduct surveillance of Hanson-Young during a recent visit to the island.
“When Senator Sarah Hanson-Young visited Nauru, Wilson Security organised a team from ERT [emergency response team] to spy on her while she was on Nauru. This included following her around the island while she was outside of the OPCs [offshore processing centres] and setting up an observation post to watch her room at the Menen hotel,” it says.
The call sign used by the guards to identify Hanson-Young in their surveillance was “raven”, according to the former employee.
The author of the submission also said they had seen a video from the body camera worn by a Wilson Security guard shortly before major unrest occurred at the centre on 19 July 2013. They said the video showed guards discussing the growing unrest and saying that if something happens they will go to a compound at the centre “and take cunts down”.
“From seeing this video it was obvious to me that these Wilson guards were planning to use unreasonable force and assault the asylum seekers even before the riot started,” the submission said.
It added: “I strongly recommend the centre is shut down, the remaining asylum seekers be processed onshore and all the refugees that were released into the Nauruan community be brought to Australia.”
The name of the employee who submitted the submission has been withheld from publication by the Senate committee.
In a response to the submission Wilson Security said it strongly rejected allegations of a coverup of abuse of asylum seekers, of corruption, and of the organisation of a team to spy on Hanson-Young.
But it acknowledged that “despite our best efforts, there are individuals that do not do the right thing from time to time”.
In relation to the allegations of surveillance of Hanson-Young, it conceded that it was “aware of individuals who attended the Menen hotel” in a capacity that was “not authorised” at the same time as Hanson-Young was present. It said the individuals involved were subject to disciplinary action.
It also conceded that it was aware of one incident where an employee had lied about their background in the Australian defence force.
Submissions to the inquiry have continued to offer stinging rebukes of the centre and the overall management by the Australian immigration department and private companies contracted at the centre.
A submission was also received to the inquiry from Caz Coleman, who is one of the most senior advisers to successive governments on asylum seeker policy.
She previously sat on a council to advise the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, on asylum seeker policy, but was not reappointed when the panel was reformed in May after it lay empty for six months.
Coleman previously worked as the transitional contract manager for the Salvation Army (TSA) in the early management of the centre.
She outlined strong concerns about the overall direction of the centre, and said there was a “significant systemic failure” to manage the centre and transition to the community in collaboration with the Nauru government.
Coleman said: “The result was a lack of trust, poor communication, poor collaboration and a strong perception that the failure of TSA to perform adequately heightened the risk to clients and staff in the centre. Rather than collaboration there were clear examples of competition, undermining of TSA staff by other service providers and also hostility and non-cooperation from TSA staff toward other service providers.”
She outlined that the recent allegations of sexual assault and harassment that arose from the review into allegations at the centre by Philip Moss indicated that there was significant animosity between private contractors on the island.
“There is no question that without a collaborative, respectful and trusted relationship between providers, risk increases in a centre like Nauru. Without this collaboration, communication decreases and the essential elements of managing difficult clients and group events involving self-harm or other harm are compromised,” she wrote.
She also reiterated strong concerns that have previously been raised about the “effective ban” on providing information to asylum seekers on Nauru at the direction of the immigration department.
“This directive by the department of immigration to all service providers effectively meant staff could not engage in responding to questions from clients about what was happening to them, what process were they likely to undergo, or respond in a timely way to the confusion that was inevitable amongst clients when there was a press release or other asylum-related news item from Australia,” she said.
The Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at the University of New South Wales submitted to the inquiry that Australia “appears to be in breach of its obligations to respect, protect and ensure the human rights of children within the Nauru RPC on a continuing basis”.
It called for the suspension of transfers of children to the Nauru detention centre until the Australian government could guarantee the safety of asylum seekers there.
The ongoing Senate inquiry is scheduled to hold further hearings to hear from the immigration department and former employees at the detention centre.
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