Nine asylum-seeker mothers have been placed on suicide watch after reported self-harm attempts in detention on Christmas Island.
Christmas Island shire president Gordon Thomson told Guardian Australia that over the past two days a number of mothers with babies born in detention in Australia had self harmed and as a result were being placed under “constant watch” by individual security officers in the family camp.
“The women believe that if they sacrifice themselves the children will grow up to learn they did the best thing for them, to give them the chance to live in Australia,” Thomson said.
“The conditions women are having to survive are so grotesque that they obviously can’t bear it any more,” he added.
A Perth-based refugee advocate, Victoria Martin-Iverson, told Guardian Australia another woman was being treated in hospital on Christmas Island after a suicide attempt on Sunday evening. Thomson also confirmed this.
Iverson said asylum-seeker mothers in the family compound have been complaining of dirty drinking water for days.
Holding children and mothers in detention has become one of the most controversial aspects of the Australian government’s mandatory detention programme of asylum seekers.
In June Guardian Australia revealed three pregnant women on Nauru had requested transfers to the Australian mainland in order to abort their pregnancies because they did not want to bring up their children under harsh and uncertain conditions.
A leaked report, produced by five independent experts and obtained by Guardian Australia, also revealed that most pregnant women in detention on Nauru were suffering depression.
Thomson said those placed under observation were not allowed to move further than two metres from a security officer at all times.
“I am also concerned for the security officers having to suffer the anguish of the situation and the knowledge that the situation for the women can only worsen. This will obviously have an effect on them, too,” said Thomson.
Guardian Australia contacted the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, for comment and is awaiting a response.
