No preparation for reality of Manus Island

WITHIN days of spotting a Facebook advertisement for a tropical working “holiday”, Nicole Judge was counselling suicidal detainees.

Nicole Judge yesterday appeared before the Senate inquiry into last February’s fatal riot on Manus Island. Picture: Kym Smith

WITHIN days of spotting a Facebook advertisement for a tropical working “holiday” in September 2012, Nicole Judge was counselling suicidal detainees at the heart of Australia’s immigration detention network.

As an untrained 22-year-old Salvation Army support worker on Nauru, Ms Judge said she witnessed detainees leaping off buildings, stabbing themselves and screaming for freedom while beating their heads against concrete.

However nothing prepared her for Manus Island, where guards allegedly covered up the beating of an innocent detainee and she was repeatedly directed to keep clear of Papua New Guinean locals employed at the centre for fear they might rape her.

Ms Judge made the claims yesterday to a Senate inquiry into last February’s fatal riot on Manus Island, saying she was “given no training” and “didn’t even have a job interview” before being hired by the Salvation Army.

Staff training at the detention centre is under scrutiny amid evidence a local Salvation Army recruit may have been involved in the death of Iranian detainee Reza Berati, 23, during the riot.

Martin Appleby, a former safety and security officer on Manus Island with security firm G4S, said PNG tactical response officers received three to four days training in defensive shield tactics that would take a minimum six weeks to learn properly.

Ms Judge rejected the Salvation Army’s claim that “support workers” such as her were untrained because “by the very nature of their role, do not require particular qualifications”.

Ms Judge said her primary job was to speak to detainees, who told her “every day” they wanted to die. “I spent lengthy amounts of time trying to convince people that their lives were still worth living and there would be hope at the end of all this … In my head at times I didn’t believe what I was saying,” she said.

“(The Salvation Army ad) described going to Nauru as like a holiday and it would be really fun. I thought, going into this, it would be some sort of fun experience ... it sounds so naive.’’

When rampant sexual harassment by male guards became too overwhelming, she said, the Salvation Army’s management told her “this kind of stuff happens at bars all the time, so I just had to go with it”.

Ms Judge, giving evidence under parliamentary privilege, recalled constant warnings that any breach of her confidentiality agreement, even by speaking to her parents, could result in a criminal prosecution and the Salvation Army losing its contract.