The UN refugee agency says the mental health of refugees detained by Australia on Nauru is "shocking".
Photo: Supplied by Refugee Action Coalition
The comment was made by the agency's Asia Pacific bureau director, Indrika Ratwatte, the highest ranking official from its Geneva headquarters to visit the island nation.
Writing in the Guardian, Mr Ratwatte says "adults and children alike have increasingly attempted suicide and acts of self-harm," during their five year detention on Nauru.
He said the details were gruesome, but important: children have swallowed razor blades, overdosed on medication and hanged themselves.
If Australia accepted New Zealand's offer to resettle some of the refugees, Mr Ratwatte said the suffering of 158 children on Nauru could be brought to an end.
He said a policy that knowingly and unrelentingly harms children for political ends was an abomination.