Accused of ‘leaking’ information

Yaren – The raid on the offices of Save The Children on Nauru appears to be a major escalation of the Nauruan government’s attacks on whistleblowers at the refugee detention centre.

The Nauruan government initiated the raid after it was angered by a Guardian Australia report that disclosed an email from the Nauru operations manager, Berilyn Jeremiah, about allowing local journalists into the detention centre.

It is unclear what the legal basis for the seizures are, and what offence the Nauru police believe may have been committed.

A spokeswoman for Australia’s immigration department said it had no role in the raids, and referred questions to the Nauru police force.

A Save the Children spokeswoman said: “We have no reason to believe that our staff have acted inappropriately, but we are of course assisting the Nauru police force with its inquiries.

“As always, our priority remains working to mitigate the harmful impacts of offshore immigration detention, to the extent that the circumstances allow.”

The raid follows repeated concerns about the ability of staff to speak out at the Australian run detention centre.

On Tuesday the United Nations special rapporteur for freedom of expression, David Kaye, said Australia was “chipping away” at rights and freedoms in the crackdown on asylum seeker reporting.

Previously reports from Guardian Australia and other news outlets have been referred to the Australian federal police by the immigration department for investigation with a view to prosecuting their sources.

The federal government – with the support of Labor – introduced a further offence under the Australian Border Force Act that could see public interest disclosures further criminalised.

Save the Children workers in Nauru were searched and had their phones and computers confiscated after the charity’s office was raided by Nauruan police.

Australian Border Force officers watched on as staff were told to step away from their desks by local police on Saturday afternoon.

One staff member said the combination of Nauruan police and “black shirts” (Australian Border Force) was “very confronting”.

A spokesman for the Department of Immigration said Australian Border Force had no role in the raid.

Save The Children staff were accused of leaking information about the Australian-funded detention centre.

The aid and development agency, which assists a number of Pacific nations, denied the accusation.

Nauru Police seized computers, mobile phones and other devices including flash drives.

The ABC understands those items were either encrypted or password-protected.