Doctor says Australia covering up mental illness in asylum-seeker children

By Matt Siegel SYDNEY (Reuters) - A former healthcare worker at Australia's immigration detention centers said on Thursday the government asked him to cover up evidence that children held in the camps were suffering from widespread mental illness caused by their confinement. Under policies aimed at stopping asylum seekers reaching Australia's mainland by boat, migrants are sent to camps in Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific nation of Nauru where they face long periods of detention while they are processed. Peter Young, a doctor who previously supervised mental health services at the camps, said at a hearing held by the Australian Human Rights Commission that he was asked to remove figures from a report detailing the extent of the problem. "They asked us to withdraw the figures from our reporting." Refugee advocates say that long-term detention, combined with a lack of clarity on where and when the asylum seekers may be resettled, contribute to a host of mental health problems at the facilities. Read More http://ift.tt/1oP2mzb