Leaked Docs Expose 1,000 Child Abuse Cases at Australia's Nauru Detention Center

Over 2,000 leaked files on the state of affairs in the Australia-run asylum-seeker center on Nauru Island have revealed large-scale abuse, with 51.3 percent of cases involving minors, The Guardian reported Wednesday, after publishing the documents.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A total of 1,086 of the reported incidents at the immigration processing facility concern children, while they constituted only about 18 percent of those held on the remote island during the time covered by the documents, from May 2013 to October 2015, an analysis of the 8,000-page documents by the newspaper shows.

The incidents at Australia’s offshore center vary from a guard allegedly grabbing a boy and threatening to kill him to cases of when guards allegedly slapped children in the face.

The period covered by the incident reports coincide with the findings of the Australian Human Rights Commission that warned the country's government of high risk of self-harm cases and abuse of children in its offshore processing centers.

The Nauru facility was opened in 2001 and ran until 2008. In 2012, it was reopened following a surge in the number of maritime arrivals of asylum seekers.

Rights groups have sharply criticized the detention camps for their inhumane living conditions and incidents of sexual and physical abuse.