The Australia-based Refugee Action Coalition says three Iranian asylum seekers were taken to hospital yesterday evening after a suicide attempt and two incidents of self-harm in the Nauru detention camp.
The coalition's spokesman Ian Rintoul says another asylum seeker was left bleeding after being punched by a camp security guard as the guard tried to push asylum seekers away from one of the men.
Mr Rintoul says the latest suicide attempt reveals the crisis inside the camp.
"The camp was left in a very distraught and anxious situation. The people there have been appealing to the guards to the intervene and the guards hadn't done anything. It was really the asylum seekers that came to his assistance and this morning after a meeting last night they've now declared that there's a camp-wide hunger strike which is happening at the moment."
Ian Rintoul says he has encouraged asylum seekers to make an official complaint about the alleged assault by the guard.
