Baron Waqa refuses to accept blame for poor treatment of refugees on Nauru

By Lydia Lewis of RNZ

A former Iranian refugee, who sought asylum in Australia but instead ended up at Nauru’s offshore detention centre, wants former Nauru president and the current Pacific Islands Forum secretary-general Baron Waqa to admit responsibility for the “cruel and inhumane” treatment of refugees.

Hamid, now resettled in New Zealand, spent almost a decade in Nauru, experiencing first-hand the unbearable conditions as a refugee on the island.

He said the Nauru and Australia governments “are not human, they have no heart, no emotion” for how they left children with medical needs to suffer, including his daughter.

“My question is this, why does a child have to think about suicide or sew lips [sewing lips together in protest]?” he told RNZ Pacific.

“[Nauru] said it’s Australia’s responsibility, and Australia said it is Nauru’s responsibility. They have no humanity.”

The running of the camps was largely the responsibility of Australian government officials for most of Waqa’s tenure.

However, Waqa has denied children held on Nauru by Australia were treated poorly, refusing to take any blame.

Nauru president Baron Waqa. Photo / Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific

Two children who were detained offshore in Nauru in 2013 have won federal court settlements from the Australian government for medical negligence and abdicating its duty of care.

Responding to questions from RNZ Pacific at his latest monthly press briefing, Waqa said he does not take responsibility for what happened even though it happened under his presidential tenure.

Waqa said the children at the detention centre were “well looked after”.

“Now the issue with those kids, as you know, everything is highly and politically hyped up. And no, I don’t take any responsibility for that.

“Those kids are well looked after. Every one of them, the asylum seekers, the refugees on the island when I was president, were well looked after. They were provided and cared for very well.”

One of the Australian detention centres on Nauru. Photo / Caleb Fotheringham

‘Nauru effectively a penal colony’

However, a Refugee Action Coalition spokesperson does not agree.

“Nauru could do itself a favour and do the world a favour by refusing to be complicit in the abuse of refugees,” refugee activist Ian Rintoul said.

He said contrary to Waqa’s claim, there is a “long” and “well established” record of abuse against children on Nauru.

He said the Refugee Action Coalition welcomed the two “landmark settlements” for children detained in Nauru by Australia.

AAP reported the two children won settlements from the Australian government for medical negligence and abdicating its duty of care

They arrived in Australia by boat with their families in 2013 before being detained and processed offshore in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

“From the very early days, the heat, the lack of water, the limited medical facilities, they were in the tents when initially people were transferred there, to the lack of education facilities,” Rintoul said.

“There was systemic racism and discrimination against them. There was the mould. I mean, it could go on and on.”

The federal court rulings came within days of each other at the end of August.

The confidential settlements, which protect the identities of the children and their families, are the first of 45 similar lawsuits brought by the National Justice Project, AAP reported.

“The most sensible and humane thing that [president David] Adeang could do is to refuse for Nauru to be an offshore detention centre,” Rintoul said.

“I mean, effectively, the money that goes into Nauru, it’s one of their major sources of funds.

“It’s effectively just, it’s a penal colony that’s being supported by Australia’s abuse of asylum seekers and of refugees.”

Around 100 asylum seekers are again being held in Australia’s offshore processing centre in Nauru, after numbers dropped to zero in June last year.

There are no children in this latest group, according to Rintoul.

Under the Zealand-Australia Refugee Resettlement Arrangement which came into effect in June 2022, 172 refugees had been resettled in Aotearoa as of July 2024, Andrew Lockhart, New Zealand’s national manager Refugee and Migrant Services said.

“New Zealand has agreed to resettle 450 refugees over a three-year period. The arrangement will end on June 30, 2025,” Andrew Lockhart said.

Hamid is one of the few refugees resettled under this agreement.

“[The] Australian government separated my kids from me, and separated our family,” he said.

Hamid’s daughter, who was so distressed in detention on Nauru sewed her lips shut in protest as a young teen. She is now in the US and his wife is still in Iran.

“Maybe later my family will come [to New Zealand],” he said.

Despite all of the difficulties he has had to endure, Hamid has hope, now living in Auckland after years of detention and his family scattered over the world.

“Who knows what is going to happen, God knows the truth, no one knows about the next minute,” Hamid said.

He is taking small steps in the safety of New Zealand to unite with his family.