Australians who blew the whistle on offshore detention to speak at … – The Sydney Morning Herald

After the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York, Viktoria Vibhakar was part of the American Red Cross mental health team working at Ground Zero.

She counselled emergency workers "digging through rubble and sifting for body parts".

Play Video Don't Play

Play Video Don't Play

Previous slide Next slide

The treatment of refugees on Nauru is in breach of international law and amounts to torture, according to Amnesty International - but the PM rejects the claim.

Play Video Don't Play

Residents by Wilson's River say they want to get back to their lives once the floodwaters subside.

Play Video Don't Play

Rockhampton is bracing for its worst flood in 60 years, while waters start to recede in south-east Queensland. Vision courtesy ABC News 24.

Play Video Don't Play

Nick Xenophon is accused of selling out the nation by allowing the Turnbull government to secure a controversial business tax cut which will leave a multi-billion dollar hole in the budget.

Play Video Don't Play

Logan River is hit by the worst flooding seen since 1974.

Play Video Don't Play

As flood waters slowly start to recede in NSW, they reveal some serious damage which will take weeks, perhaps even months to fix.

Play Video Don't Play

Two people are dead and at least three others are still missing as the east coast comes to grips with some of the worst flooding in decades.

Play Video Don't Play

Queensland Deputy Premier Jackie Trad has announced the closure of all schools, including private and Catholic, ahead of more turbulent weather predicted in Queensland in the aftermath of Cyclone Debbie.

The treatment of refugees on Nauru is in breach of international law and amounts to torture, according to Amnesty International - but the PM rejects the claim.

But she said the"hopelessness and despair" she saw on Nauru "was worse than anything I had seen before".

As a child protection worker with Save the Children, Ms Vibhakar saw dozens of young asylum seekers detained indefinitely in harsh conditions on the remote island.

She learned of cases of sexual abuse, physical assault, self-harm and emotional and verbal abuse, and felt ethically bound to tell the Australian Human Rights Commission inquiry into children in immigration detention of the damage being done.

She risked going to jail by breaching a deed of confidentiality with the disclosure. When she posted her anonymous submission to the inquiry in 2014, she disguised herself with sunglasses and a baseball cap.

But next week she will speak on the most public of stages, at a global summit alongside Hillary Clinton and Justin Trudeau.

Ms Vibhakar is one of three Australians invited to the Women in the World Summit in New York, where international leaders and advocates will discuss issues affecting women and girls.

With paediatric nurse Alanna Maycock and human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson, she will discuss "Australia's Shame" the offshore detention of asylum seekers.

They will be preceded by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and followed by Mrs Clinton, and are speaking on the same day as Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, who has made clear his country's support for refugees escaping conflict and persecution.

Blowing the whistle cost Ms Vibhakar her job. She was among the Save the Children workers referred to the Australian Federal Police by the then Immigration Minister, Scott Morrison, and later cleared of any wrongdoing by the Moss review.

"I was so afraid, but I knew this information had to get [out]," Ms Vibhakar said. "I believed if the Australian public knew what was happening, they absolutely would not support this. Nobody actually could."

Australia's treatment of detained asylum seekers has been condemned by the UN's Committee on the Rights of the Child, the UN's special rapporteur on torture and Amnesty International.

Yet the Australian government had promoted its hardline policy as a model for other countries, Ms Vibhakar said. "It's so important for the international community to be aware of the human consequences."

Despite the threat of prosecution, Alanna Maycock also felt compelled to speak publicly about the despair she witnessed when consulting on Nauru's child detainees in 2014.

"We met a six-year-old girl who had marks around her neck, where she'd tried to hang herself with fence ties," she said.

Forty-nine women and 45 children are still detained on Nauru. The children had been there two-and-a-half years on average, Ms Maycock said. "They're just living and breathing misery,day in, day out."

Ms Maycock hoped addressing the summit would help the world comprehend the impact of mandatory detention on children and persuade other countries "not to make the same mistakes Australia is making".

"There will come a time when Australia will turn around and say, 'What the hell did we do?'"

"Australia's Shame" will be live-streamed from the summit on Friday at 6am AEST.

Read more here:

Australians who blew the whistle on offshore detention to speak at ... - The Sydney Morning Herald