Child asylum seekers who have spent time on Nauru are among the most traumatised cases two Australian paediatricians have encountered in 50 years of combined professional experience.
Professor Elizabeth Elliott and Dr Hasantha Gunasekera assessed 69 children at Wickham Point detention centre in Darwin and parents of 15 children born into detention, as part of an inquiry by the Australian Human Rights Commission.
"These children, most of whom had spent months in Nauru, are among the most traumatised we have ever seen in our 50 years of combined professional experience," Professor Elliott told reporters in Sydney.
Of the children over eight years old who had previously lived on Nauru, 95 per cent were assessed as being in the clinical range of being at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Nauru's fences depicted by a seven-year-old. Source: Humanrights.gov
Dr Gunasekera is deeply disturbed at the numbers of children who expressed intent to self harm, talked openly about suicide or had made attempts at both already.
All of the children screened using the parent evaluation of development scale were in the top two score categories for development risk, higher than any published results for this screening tool anywhere in the world.
Following Wednesday's High Court ruling which paves the way for 267 asylum seekers including 91 children to be deported from Australia to Nauru, the pair recommended that under no circumstances should any child detained on the mainland be sent to the Pacific Island.
Seven-year-old girl draws the boat she arrived in. Source: Humanrights.gov
"Many of the children had palpable anticipatory trauma at mention of return to Nauru," Prof Elliott said.
Dr Gunasekera said the only appropriate management option was to remove the children from the environment which is causing or exacerbating their mental ill-health.
Australia is detaining 80 children, including 36 babies, at Wickham Point and about 70 children on Nauru.
The commission is concerned that transferring children and their families to Nauru will place Australia at serious risk of breaching its obligations under the UN rights of the child convention, covenant on civil and political rights, and the convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
This drawing shows people crying and one person with blood on their face. Source: Humanrights.gov
President Gillian Triggs said the paediatricians' report and recommendations had been sent to the immigration minister and department last November.
She had received an inadequate response and had written to them again last week.
The report also calls for a royal commission into child and sexual abuse that has resulted from Australia's use of mandatory immigration detention since 1992.
