AT WHAT COST?

At What Cost? – The Human, Economic and Strategic Cost of Australia’s Asylum Seeker Policies and the Alternatives
(iv) Access to quality education
Save the Children has documented significant challenges faced by refugee children in accessing education in
the local school system in Nauru, including bullying, racism and widespread tensions between the refugee and
Nauruan communities.
It is worth noting that there were no resources dedicated to building social cohesion between the refugee
population and Nauruans as the host population. Community tensions have been the inevitable outcome of
Australia’s offshore detention policies that transferred a culturally diverse group of people into a very small
developing nation with a highly homogenous population of only 10,000 people. 109
Following the closure of Save the Children’s successful school program on Nauru, there has been a considerable
drop in the attendance of asylum seeker and refugee children in local schools. Save the Children staff estimate that
less than 15 percent of such children are in attendance and there is a lack of specialised educational services. 110 The
Government of Nauru has commendably put a considerable focus on boosting national education standards. As
children were transitioned into the local education setting, the Australian Government did not take adequate steps
to address gaps to ensure that curriculum was socially, culturally and linguistically relevant to refugee children and
assist in strengthening the local education system.
In a media report earlier this year it was noted that ‘a five year-old asylum seeker was urinated on by a group of
Nauruan boys’, ‘asylum seeker girls have been sexually harassed at school’, and ‘many parents are too scared to send
their children to school in 2016’. The same media piece reported that asylum seeker children on Nauru had alleged
that ‘Nauruan students threaten them with knives and teachers routinely swear at them’. Other children stated they
did not attend the school due to safety concerns associated with leaving the detention centre. 111
The interviews cited in the HRW/Amnesty International Report (2016) reveal similar concerns with a 14 year-old
reporting on behalf of himself and his younger brother:
Local kids kept attacking us, and even throwing stones. When we complained to the principal, the kids
were made to say “sorry” to us. But when we left the principal’s office, they got even angrier at us. 112
(v) Access to healthcare
In addition to the health risks posed by Nauru’s detention of child asylum seekers and their families, concerns arise
in relation to the availability of necessary medical services on Nauru. These concerns are pertinent to those living in
the RPC as well as those refugees living in the community.
Various reports indicate:
• a lack of specialised medical equipment and access to medical specialists, including paediatrians and
neonatal specialists
• inadequate maternal and child health services
• delays in access to medical evacuation for life-threatening injuries and illness
• inappropriate treatment plans for complex and serious medical conditions (including over-the-counter
painkillers such as Panadol commonly given as the only response to serious health complaints)
• inadequate hygiene standards and facilities in the hospital
• a lack of access to dental treatment (other than tooth extraction) and prescription glasses including
for children
• a general dismissal of clients who report serious health concerns, and
• lack of access to emergency ambulance services. 113
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