The company managing Australia's detention centre on Nauru has raised the threat level at its main complex on the island after the death of an asylum seeker on Friday morning, refugee advocates say.
The 26 year-old Iranian asylum seeker was found dead in his family's tent in the processing centre yesterday.
The Refugee Action Coaltion says his death was a suicide.
Photo: AFP
According to the coalition, Canstruct, the Nauru detention management company, has declared a "threat level 3" at its administrative centre which also houses the International Health and Medical Services clinic.
It said the building was where the man's brother and mother were taken this morning.
The Nauru government said it was waiting for a doctor to come from Australia to perform an autopsy to confirm the cause of death.
"But we already know that Peter Dutton and offshore detention is responsible for [his] death," said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson from the Refugee Action Coalition.
Mr Rintoul said the man's death has added to the growing crisis on Nauru where people were already angry that an Afghan man dying of lung cancer was being prevented from spending his last months in Australia.
He said a two-year old Iranian girl was urgently medivacced from Nauru to Port Moresby on Thursday because medical neglect had allowed an infection to spread and put her life at risk.
"Mental illness and medical neglect is deliberate government policy. Peter Dutton is quite willing to let people die and pretend that the Nauru government is responsible, " said Mr Rintoul.
"Detention on Nauru has become a life sentence. It is time to call a halt to offshore detention, and bring them here."