CANBERRA – A former senior doctor with an Australian Immigration Department contractor alleges medical staff were repeatedly pressured not to report mental health problems suffered by asylum seekers caused by detention on Nauru.

A Senate inquiry is looking into the Australian-funded detention facility on the Pacific island nation.

Peter Young was the former director of mental health for International Health and Medical Services and was responsible for the mental health of those in Australian-run centres.

Dr Young said he was told several times not to note psychological harm in reports.

“When it came to mental health issues we were repeatedly told that – when making recommendations about people’s mental health, and the harms that accrued to

their mental health while they were in Nauru – that we should not say that in the reports,” he said.

“We were told that it was unacceptable to put in reports to the department that people’s mental health had been harmed by being in detention in Nauru.”

Dr Young was asked by the inquiry who it was that said he shouldn’t include mental health in reports of detainees.

“The department’s chief medical officer,” he replied, saying he argued against the recommendation and did not alter his reports.

Dr Young also said medical recommendations were frequently not accepted or delayed.

The inquiry heard accusations that the department ignored medical recommendations for evacuations to Australia for treatment.

He said there was a reluctance to send people to Australia for treatment because it would undermine the offshore detention policy and migrants could more readily access lawyers when on the mainland.

Dr Young also said the Immigration Department warned staff not to make submissions to a Human Rights Commission inquiry into children in detention on Nauru.

“The department I recall saying that people should be warned not to make submissions, and that if they made submissions – even if they made them anonymously –

they would find out who they were and take action, these types of things,” Dr Young said.

“The Immigration Department told us we needed to warn the staff and that when submissions were received they went through them to look and see who the staff might be.”

Immigration Department secretary Michael Pezzullo said asylum seekers were transferred for medical treatment when necessary.

Pezzullo also denied Dr Young’s evidence employees were warned not to speak about conditions in the centre, particularly to the Human Rights Commission which was undertaking an inquiry.

Dr Young also said it was completely plausible a Greens senator was spied on while she visited Nauru’s detention centre.

He said allegations that Sarah Hanson-Young was watched during her visit to Nauru in 2013 were “very consistent” with what occurred when outsiders came to the island.

“There were communications from the Immigration Department that staff needed to be warned not to speak out of turn. That was generally what occurred when there were external visitors,” he said.

The Senate Inquiry has also heard that out of 50 abuse cases on Nauru referred to local police over the past two-and-a-half years, only five charges have been laid and two convictions recorded.