An Australian doctor has challenged Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to prosecute him under anti-whistle blower legislation by speaking out about the health of children kept in detention on Nauru.
Refugees on Nauru protesting on 7 April 2015 at Anibare camp against offshore processing in defiance of a new law that requires protesters to give seven days notice of any protest and gives the police commissioner sole power to allow a protest, or not. Photo: Supplied by Refugee Action Coalition
David Isaacs, a paediatrician from Sydney, risks two years imprisonment under the Border Force Act by describing the treatment of asylum seekers in Nauru as torture.
He spent a week at the detention centre in 2014 and said all the children he treated were traumatised while others had been abused and were committing self harm.
Professor Isaacs said it's morally wrong for the Australian Government to suppress information about its offshore detention facilities.
"So we are torturing people by keeping them in prolonged detention when they have committed no crime without letting them know what is going to happen to them. Can you imagine what that does to your mental health? This is the Australian government committing torture, and then they silence critics."
Professor Isaacs said if he's not prosecuted by the Australian Government then the Border Force Act should be repealed.