The detention centre at Nauru is badly run and despite the Australian government spending billions of dollars on the camp, its knowledge of what goes on inside is inadequate, a Senate inquiry has found.
Despite the inquiry revealing a litany of alarming allegations including child rape and sexual assault of asylum seekers, operator Transfield Services on Monday announced it had been chosen as preferred tenderer to run the government-funded detention camps at Nauru and Manus Island for another five years.
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young described the decision as "shameful".
The select committee's findings were supported by Labor and the Greens, but opposed by government members who said the inquiry was unfair and politically motivated.
The report cited a case revealed by Fairfax Media, in which a Wilson guard allegedly framed an asylum seeker for assault. It said "the [immigration] department's ignorance of such events" demonstrates its limited control and oversight at Nauru.
It said the camp is apparently "not run well" and contractors Wilson and Transfield Services are not "properly accountable to the Commonwealth despite the significant investment in their services", which totalled $1.2 billion to run Manus Island and Nauru for the last 20 months.
The committee also called for all children to immediately removed from Nauru.
It concluded conditions were "not adequate, appropriate or safe" for asylum seekers and the government must adjust the balance between enforcing security and providing "a decent quality of life".
The Department of Immigration and Australian Federal Police should fully audit all criminal conduct allegations, the committee said.
The Australian government says it refers such allegations to the Nauru Police, despite that agency laying charges in just five out of 50 cases, and reportedly being under-resourced. The Nauru police deny they are ill-equipped.
The inquiry called for mandatory reporting of any suspected sexual assault or other serious allegations, saying were it not for the inquiry, many cases would have remained hidden.
It said the Immigration Ombudsman should independently review all complaints involving Australian staff and contractors, following concern that Wilson Security and Transfield Services investigate their own behaviour.
Last year the Naruan government increased the cost of a journalist's visa from $200 to $8000. The committee said the media and human rights groups should be granted reasonable access to the camp.
The committee recommended the government build more permanent infrastructure, after hearing asylum seekers lived in mould-infested tents in hot, humid conditions.
It questioned evidence given to the committee by the department, Wilson Security and Transfield Services about an incident in which Wilson staff spied on Senator Hanson-Young on a visit to the island.
The evidence was at odds with that of Wilson guards with intimate knowledge of the incident "suggesting these organisations have misled the Senate, either wilfully or as a result of inadequate investigations", it said.
In a dissenting report, government senators said the inquiry accepted "unsubstantiated submissions as fact" and the inquiry sought to advance the perspective of those opposed to the government's asylum seeker policies.
"The department is committed to working with Nauruan authorities to ensure that people accommodated at the [centre] are provided with a safe and secure environment," they said.
