What are the Nauru files?
The Nauru files are the largest set of leaked documents published from inside Australia’s immigration detention system. They are a set of more than 2,000 incident reports from the Nauru detention centre, written by guards, caseworkers and teachers on the remote Pacific island. They set out every reportable “incident” on the island. Such events include attempts at self-harm, sexual assaults, child abuse, hunger strikes, assaults and injuries. While some of these cases have been reported by the Guardian and other news organisations, the logs set out in detail the totality of harm caused by prolonged detention in Australia’s notorious offshore detention camps.
Like many other countries around the world, Australia has privatised its immigration detention centres. But Australia has gone a step beyond other countries: it has exported its detention centres offshore – to Nauru and to Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. Any asylum seeker who arrives by boat in Australia is immediately placed in one of these facilities and told they will never be resettled in Australia. The policy is a hardline deterrent established to “stop the boats” – a familiar slogan in Australian politics.
What information does the interactive contain?
The Guardian’s interactive holds the detailed incident reports as well as a “summary log” of each report. All of these have been written by detention centre staff. The data has been grouped by month and year, by incident category and by risk rating. You can explore individual incidents, or search by type or timeframe. When you select an individual incident you can also share it across social networks.
The summary logs that appear when you click on the coloured squares are the staff’s truncated versions of the detailed incident reports. Click “See original report” to view the incident reports themselves.
What is an incident report?
An incident report is a short summary of an event in the Nauru detention centre written by staff there. Some of the details in the files may distress some readers. They can range from an observation of a threat of self-harm, to abuse of a child, or a more mundane incident such as a child falling over when playing soccer. These reports form part of the contractual requirements set down by the Australian government in order to document and keep records of what is happening inside the detention system.
Who writes these reports?
Scores of staff from a number of private companies have written them. The Australian government has privatised its immigration detention system, outsourcing the services within it. Broadspectrum (formerly known as Transfield Services) manages the detention centre and subcontracts security services to Wilson Security. International Health and Medical Services provides medical care. Save the Children provided welfare and childcare services until the end of 2015.
When is an incident reportable and how are they rated and categorised?
Incidents are reportable when they fall into one of the categories that have been set out in Transfield Services’ contract with Australia’s immigration department. These reports are given a “risk rating” in three distinct categories: critical, major and minor.
Critical incidents must be reported verbally within 30 minutes and in writing within three hours. Major incidents must be reported verbally within an hour and in writing within six hours. Minor incidents don’t require a verbal report. A written report only needs to be filed within 24 hours. Timeframes for reporting incidents to the department are extremely important because failures to meet these deadlines can trigger financial penalties.
There is also a fourth rating that appears frequently in the logs: information reports. These types of reports do not appear to have any basis in the contract with Australia’s immigration department but they are extremely common.
Separately from the risk rating, the reports are also broken down into classifications; for instance “concern for minor raised” and “self-harm threat” are discrete incident categories.
Transfield Services outlined how reports should be categorised in its incident management framework of June 2013. An incident reporting matrix from 2014 provides similar guidance.
How accurate are the incident reports and their categorisation?
The way incidents are categorised should be treated with some caution. The private companies that manage the detention centre have extremely poor data handling practices. Some incidents have also been deliberately downgraded in their seriousness. This means that the way incidents are categorised should be examined carefully. There are examples of severe incidents categorised as “information”.
The risk ratings are applied inconsistently, if at all. Some of the ways the information has been categorised has changed over time, leading to further inconsistencies in counting the data.
To present a useful summary of the incident database the Guardian has combined several similar categories, with the original details also preserved in our database. These categories have been clearly marked in our publication of the database. The original incident reports can also be viewed individually and disclose how the information was initially reported.
Has any of the data been changed?
The Guardian has redacted personal information in the files it has published. It has also sought to more clearly categorise some types of incident reports by grouping similar types of incidents when the reporting categories have changed over time. For instance, suicidal ideation has been grouped with threatened self-harm. All of the original incident reporting categories have been preserved in the files though, and this grouping has been clearly marked.
What information has been redacted?
The Nauru files contain a large amount of personal information about asylum seekers and detention centre staff. The Guardian has adopted a stringent approach to redacting the documents, including several layers of editorial and technical checks of the data. The general approach we have taken is to remove:
• The names of all asylum seekers and staff
• Personal identification numbers of asylum seekers (their six-digit “boat arrival numbers”)
• Ages of the asylum seekers named in reports
• Signatures of detention staff
• Nationalities with small population groups
• Residential tent numbers
• In some cases further identifying information has been removed
This approach to redacting the identities of asylum seekers and staff is consistent with the methodology taken by the former integrity commissioner Philip Moss in his review of sexual assault allegations at the centre.
What common terms and acronyms appear in the files?
NRPC This acronym refers to the Nauru regional processing centre (the detention centre).
SCA Save the Children Australia, contracted by the Australian government to provide welfare services on the island.
IHMS International Health and Medical Services, contracted to provide health services to asylum seekers.
TSA Transfield Services Australia, contracted to manage the Nauru detention centre.
DIBP Department of Immigration and Border Protection, the Australian government department responsible for overseeing the Nauru detention centre.
TIS Translating and Interpreting Service, a part of the immigration department that provides specialist translation services.
CPSW A Save the Children staff member who is a child protection and support worker
CW A Save the Children caseworker.
CM A Save the Children case manager.
CSO Client services officer. This is usually used to describe Wilson Security guards.
POI A person of interest, usually in relation to an allegation about their behaviour.
Whiskey Wilson Security staff who often provide psychological support for detainees.
Romeo Another word used to describe Wilson Security officers stationed around the Nauru detention centre.
Control The “control room” run by Wilson Security. This manages the reporting of incidents back to the Australian government.
OPC1, OPC2, OPC3/RPC1, RPC2, RPC3 Different compounds of the Nauru detention facility.
SAF Single adult female.
SAM Single adult male.
UAM Unaccompanied minor.
• How to contact the Nauru files reporters securely and confidentially
