Australia's asylum regime 'akin to torture'

The doctor responsible for the mental health of asylum seekers in detention has accused the immigration department of deliberately inflicting harm on vulnerable people.

A doctor who was the head of medical services for a private contractor running Australian detention centres says the system is akin to 'torture'.

A doctor overseeing the mental health of asylum seekers in detention has likened the immigration department's treatment of asylum seekers to torture.

Dr Peter Young told Guardian Australia, the system was designed to make people suffer.

"We have here an environment that is inherently toxic,” he said.

“It has characteristics which over time reliably cause harm to people’s mental health. We have very clear evidence that that’s the case.

‘If we take the definition of torture to be the deliberate harming of people in order to coerce them into a desired outcome, I think it does fulfil that definition."

Dr Young, a psychiatrist with more than two decades' experience, is one of the most senior figures ever to condemn Australia’s detention system.

Until a month ago, he was the director of mental health for International Health and Medical Services (IHMS), the private contractor that provides medical care to detention centres on the mainland, Christmas Island, Nauru and Manus Island.

MORE TO COME