Since July 2012, the Australian Government has been sending and detaining people seeking asylum to detention centres located in Nauru and Papua New Guinea for ‘offshore processing’.

A brand new report released last week by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Cruelty By Design: The health crisis in offshore detention, looks at the continued health crisis that offshore processing and detention has caused over the past eleven years.

Dylan Bird spoke with former Nauru detainee and human rights advocate Betelhem Tibebu and the ASRC’s Head of Systemic Change, Jana Favero, to unpack the findings of the report and reflect on the cruel legacy of Australia’s offshore detention policies.

“It was hard for us, especially, with just damaging your mind, your brain… everyone was sick, especially with mental health and even physical. Because you cannot get any medical assistance to get help so that place is horrible… that place still the trauma, the nightmares it’s still with us… it’s a trauma.”

Photo credit: ASRC