25 May 2005

Australian opposition concerned about children in Nauru detention centre

4:07 pm on 25 May 2005

An Australian opposition politician has spoken out against his government's continued detention of asylum seekers in Nauru.

Senator Andrew Bartlett has returned from a visit to the island where Australia has been running detention centres for nearly four years as part of a policy to process asylum seekers offshore.

Senator Bartlett says he was struck by the psychological trauma many of the people were experiencing, but particularly the terrible situation the children were in.

Those left in the camps have failed to win refugee status.

Australia says it won't accept them as refugees and it's up to Nauru to act if its government wants to remove the asylum seekers from the island.