This is a true account by someone who has been working on Narau!! Courtesy of Stop the boat people.... Name Withheld I was so incensed by all the things i seen in Nauru that i contacted the Australian Newspaper which was going to print the article i have copied below but for some reason they got cold feet i smell a newspaper scared of the government Rowan Callick Asia-Pacific editor Electrical contractor Craig Thompson was incensed, during a recent two and a half week spell working at the Nauru asylum seekers’ centre, at the claims being made in Australia that it is a hell-hole. He contacted The Australian, on returning to his home in Brisbane, to say: “I was struck by how different the centre is, from the way that it is being portrayed. It’s all skued.” Mr Thompson, aged 50, who works frequently at remote sites, especially mines around Australia, said: “They’re not doing it tough. They’re very well fed, they have free healthcare and medicines, activities, phone calls to their relatives overseas, credits to use in a store.” His observations are important because journalists are not granted access to the centres there or on Manus, and Nauru hiked the price for a journalist visa to $8,000 last month. He said: “They’re well looked after, extremely well looked after. I talked with asylum seekers there, and they certainly don’t seem despondent or abused. “A lot would appear to be economic refugees, while others I expect do legitimately suffer from a fear of persecution.” The centre contains three camps for the 600 asylum seekers, he said. They are sleeping in tents which cost $40,000 each. Some, such as those for pregnant women, have air conditioning in them. In contrast, he said: “Many Nauruans live in atrocious conditions,” despite the wealth from phosphate that once flowed through the island. “Diabetes seems prevalent,” he said. “Houses are run down, they are now in abject poverty.” In the prayer tent in the single men’s camp, said Mr Thompson, are images drawn of a missile being fired towards the Sydney Harbour Bridge, with the Opera House and Centrepoint Tower nearby, and of a plane about to hit one of the World Trade Centre towers on 9/11, with people already leaping from the second tower, as it burst into flames. He said: “I was appalled to see these drawings. There must be some hard-core people there. Im old school, I believe we should present a united front to address such issues. “I believe everyone should have equal rights, but people should leave their politics to one side if they want to come to our country, they should learn English and be positive citizens. “Clearly, there are people in Nauru who don’t seem prepared to do that.” He said that despite the claims of lengthy queues for food, “there is a bit of a line-up, but nothing you wouldnt find at Sizzler’s.” There is a healthy variety of food, he said - with asylum seekers receiving priority over staff in access to fresh fruit, as well as to health care and other services. They have jazz and hip hop dances, access to a gym, and basketball, volleyball and soccer, and sports experts come to give them coaching. They have musicians and artists teaching them. The children, he said, attend school classes alongside Nauruans, with excursions, for instance to the reef. Mr Thompson said: “They’re not mistreated in any sense. They haven’t the same rights as we do of freedom of movement, but there has to be a middle ground, and the truth should be told. “It’s not a holiday camp or a resort, no doubt about that, but they are being looked after. Yet some of the organisations represented at the camp and being paid by the government, are constantly criticising it.” He said: “I believe the government’s doing a good job - but it needs criticism too. There’s an awful lot of money being wasted in these camps. “The government hasnt got a handle on spending our money wisely. There’s a lot of poor workmanship,” with inadequate people on the ground checking on how well the camps are being run.
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 12:14:41 +0000
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