Do you remember that kid who always boasted he had a shiny Charizard card at home, but never brought it to school? And when you finally visited his place for a sleepover, he said he could show it to you – but he just didn’t want to?
Well, Nauru is that kid, Australia is his boofhead, bullying sidekick, while poor little Denmark is the exchange student who just wants proof that our Pokém– err, offshore detention regime operates as well as our government claims.
We know this much because two members of a Danish delegation, whose Nauruan visa applications were cancelled out of the blue earlier this week, have spoken to the Guardian about the surprise end to their investigative trip.
According to
MPs Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen and
Jacob Mark, their fact-finding journey to the
Pacific island to research our immigration system was actually halted due to negative comments regarding Nauru they made in the past.
Schmidt-Nielsen claims Nauruan authorities explicitly told the Danish embassy their visas had been revoked simply “because we had been saying critical things about what was going on… They didn’t want that in Nauru.”
She said the turnaround was “unacceptable and anti-democratic,” before questioning why the decision was made when the group had already touched down in Australia. Mark corroborated that viewpoint, adding “I thought that it must be a lie. It was crazy.”
A third member of the group,
MP Naser Khader, also had his visa revoked; earlier this week,
Syrian-born Khader mused to
Fairfax that because he hadn’t made any negative remarks about Nauru prior to the ban,
“I can’t conclude anything else except maybe it’s [due to]
my background.” So that’s just ace, too.
Australia and Nauru’s take on the actual business of operating the facilities was also questioned by the Danes. While they mightn’t have made it to the island, they still received a candid insight into the system.
Mark said the group asked how many people had been prosecuted in the aftermath of
recent revelations of mass abuse. Our nation’s response?
“The government in Australia just says ‘oh we don’t know’,” Mark said.
Schmidt-Nielsen said the Australian government replied “‘all of the cases are being looked into and this is just a symptom of us having a really good reporting system’.” Right. Yes. Of course.
After commenting on the baffling nature of who actually runs the show – us or Nauru – she managed to sum the entire situation in one withering statement, saying
“in a country where critical eyes and ears are not allowed, it’s obvious that something is being hidden”.
On the plus side: at least one nation won’t be emulating our system any time soon.
