Authorities at the Nauru detention centre have been accused of being blase with asylum-seeker safety after the discovery of an unexploded World War II bomb under a school tent last year.
In a submission to a Senate inquiry examining abuse allegations, former Save the Children social worker Samantha Betts claims centre operator Transfield Services mishandled the matter.
"If this had occurred at an Australian school - the school would have been indefinitely closed with the fullest safety checks conducted," Ms Betts said.
Transfield had done a "visual sweep" but had not carried out a sub-surface sweep of the entire camp.
"The visual sweep was not enough to reassure a few of us workers that this was taken seriously," Ms Betts said.
Ordnance was discovered in April 2014 after heavy rainfall, and Ms Betts said children had continued to find shrapnel over several weeks.
There was a risk child asylum seekers who had fled war-torn countries could be re-traumatised.
"It seemed so contradictory to reassure a child they are safe from the impacts of war when there's unexploded ordnances under their makeshift school classroom."
Even though it was old and rusty there was no guarantees that it would not fire, Ms Betts said.
Transfield Services defended its actions, saying it was aware that "as a legacy issue from World War II unexploded ordnances are found on Nauru from time to time".
It confirmed three incidents in which unexploded explosive weapons had been found at the detention centre.
"In each instance, an exclusion zone of up to 150 metres was set up around the site with Wilson Security officers sweeping the area," the company said, adding that asylum seekers and staff had been evacuated.
Nauru police and emergency services also attended.
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