Refugees on Nauru alleged on August 9 that police hit a man for possessing a camera during protests near the Regional Processing Centre 1.
In a series of videos posted to the Free the Children Nauru page, run by refugees at the Australian processing centre, a policeman is seen to apparently strike a man, as his fellow cops roughly take him toward a bus to jail.
Women and children were pushed, and men were “bashed” during confrontations between police and protesters on the Pacific island, according to refugee witnesses.
Australian journalist Nikala Sim wrote that refugees had been protesting “to highlight a lack of resettlement certainty, and unsafety, on the small Pacific island.” According to Sim, five people were arrested and jailed for 14 days.
On August 5, Storyful reported: “One refugee told Storyful their hopes for resettlement were dashed after the Washington Post leaked transcripts of a call between US Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The transcript signalled that the US-Australia refugee resettlement deal was non-binding and that the US would only be required to go through a process but weren’t obligated to accept any persons. Refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island, another Australian-run offshore detention centre, called the transcript proof that it was a ‘fake deal’ from the start.” Credit: Free the Children Nauru via Storyful
