Australia Orders Inquiry into Nauru Refugee Camp

Australia has ordered an inquiry into claims of sexual misconduct by staff at a refugee camp in Nauru, including whether the reports were fabricated by aid workers, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said Friday.

Under Canberra's hardline immigration policy, asylum-seekers who arrive on people-smuggling boats are denied resettlement in Australia and sent to camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Morrison said the reports of sexual misconduct and abuse against women and children at Nauru were serious and "abhorrent" if true.

"Such allegations should never be taken lightly; should never be made lightly," he told reporters in Canberra.

He said he had also had reports that staff of service providers at the Nauru centre allegedly engaged in a broader campaign seeking to undermine the government's immigration policies.

This included the alleged misuse of official reports, orchestrating protest activity -- including the use of children in protests and coaching detainees to harm themselves to ensure their evacuation to Australia for treatment.

"If people want to be political activists, that's their choice, but they don't get to do it on the taxpayer's dollar and working in a sensitive place like Nauru," Morrison said.

"Making false claims and worse allegedly coaching self-harm and using children in protests is also completely unacceptable, whatever their political views or whatever their agendas."

Morrison said 10 workers from the Save the Children charity were to be removed from the small Pacific island.

"I should stress these removals do not relate to any suspected misconduct regarding sexual abuse or misconduct," he said. 

Save the Children, which provides services to children on Nauru, denied that its staff had fabricated abuse stories or encouraged asylum-seekers to self-harm.

"Children have taken the drastic step of sewing their lips together and refusing food and water in protest at their indefinite incarceration in the Australian government's detention centre on Nauru," spokesman Ian Woolverton said.

"Our staff have responded to these distressing incidents with professionalism and compassion."

Australia's offshore processing of asylum-seekers has faced criticism from the United Nations and rights groups over conditions in the camps and the lengthy process of assessing their claims.

Morrison has previously said his party's asylum-seeker policies were effective in stopping people from dying at sea by deterring them from boarding boats bound for Australia.

The minister said he expected the independent investigation to have an interim report within seven weeks, with a final report by the end of the year.