Sarah Stephen
On January 12, a delegation of Australian government officials and health department doctors arrived on Nauru to investigate the crisis in the Pacific island state's health system, strained to breaking point during a 29-day hunger strike by Afghan asylum seekers which ended on January 8.
Many of the asylum seekers taking part in the hunger strike had to be taken repeatedly to the island's small hospital for treatment and monitoring. This represented a 140% rise in the hospital's occupancy, according to Nauru's acting director of medical services, Kieren Keke.
Australia's foreign minister Alexander Downer announced in a January 14 press release, just two days after the delegation's arrival, that Australia would provide further financial assistance to bolster Nauru's health services. However, the wording of the press release was deliberately vague, committing no specific sum of money nor specific forms of assistance.
Speaking to ABC Radio's PM program on January 15, immigration minister Amanda Vanstone explained that the assistance might include "emergency blood supplies; it might include extra beds for the hospital; things like radio handsets that might assist communication from one end of the hospital to the other; it might include some extra training or some assistance with general accommodation for medical staff".
In a January 14 press release, refugee advocate Elaine Smith explained the tokenism of the delegation's visit. According to asylum seekers she spoke to, "They waited for the delegation from Australia... members have shown no interest in the asylum seekers. They did not speak to any or look at any who were ill. The delegation made a cursory inspection of the camp, the 'non-flushing' toilets, 'salt water' washing facilities and the 'basic' medical clinic. They spoke to the doctor. It seems that this delegation is on an official visit to the Nauru government about issues between them and Australia. The health and well being of the asylum seekers locked in Topside Camp is not an issue."
Vanstone has been at pains to argue that the conditions for asylum seekers detained on Nauru are "excellent", and that medical services are adequate. But the offer made by Downer on January 14 indicates that the government concedes that this is not true.
Speaking to PM on January 15, Vanstone claimed that those who had been on hunger strike were now in "remarkably good health". However, Smith's January 14 press release described the critical health issues which the detainees face in the aftermath of their hunger strike. "Many are still having to be transferred to the hospital because of kidney and stomach pain. The two who cannot walk are still using crutches because it is too painful to walk otherwise. One man is still vomiting. He has been like this for a number of days now."
There are also many asylum seekers whose serious health problems have gone untreated since their arrival on Nauru over two years ago.
Speaking to the January 13 Melbourne Age, a spokesperson for the Professional Alliance for the Health of Asylum Seekers and their Children, Dr Louise Newman, expressed concern about a teenage boy's sight after he was prescribed the anti-psychotic Thioridazine, a drug which is banned in Australia, for a mental health problem.
"We've got grave concerns about that because it can cause serious problems such as visual loss and blindness", Newman told the Age. "This is a young person who's lost the sight in one eye over the last week and no eye doctor has been to Nauru."
Australian Medical Association president Bill Glasson, who is an eye specialist, argued that the 19-year-old's case demonstrates the urgent need for independent specialists to visit Nauru and assess detainees' health.
From Green Left Weekly, January 21, 2004.
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