A former Wilson Security guard has walked back from his allegations that asylum seekers were waterboarded at the Nauru immigration detention centre, telling a Senate inquiry he did not witness the act, but saw asylum seekers soaking wet and coughing water after leaving a tent they had been in with guards.
However, John Nichols, who also made submissions to the inquiry regarding guards spying on Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, claimed to have heard members of the emergency response team (ERT) “brag openly” about the action, and said he did witness guards tying a detainee to a fence with cable ties.
Nichols worked for Wilson Security from 2013 to June 2015 and has made legal claims against the company.
Following his testimony, representatives of Wilson Security told the inquiry Nichols’ evidence was “preposterous” and that because detainees were able to communicate with organisations such as Amnesty International, allegations of abuse were “absurd”.
“I can categorically confirm there has never been a report or even the slightest rumour of activity of this nature,” said Wilson Security’s John Rogers, suggesting that asylum seekers had access to a range of communication devices, as well as people from numerous organisations and groups.
“To think that events like those described could go undetected and unreported is absurd.”
Amnesty International promptly responded to Rogers’ remarks, pointing out they have been denied access to the detention centre for almost three years.
“Amnesty International has three times been denied access to the Nauru detention centre, preventing the organisation from reviewing conditions and treatment or hearing allegations of abuse from people held there,” Graeme McGregor, Amnesty International Australia’s refugee campaign coordinator, said in a statement.
“As a result, the only contact some asylum seekers within the centre have with Amnesty International is through intermittent, non-secure internet access and one to two short phone calls outside the centre each week. People transferred from detention in Nauru to Australia expressed to Amnesty International fears that on Nauru their calls and emails were being monitored by the authorities, making them reluctant to report abuse in that way.”
Nichols had earlier told the inquiry he believed members of the ERT had waterboarded Palestinian asylum seekers in Bravo compound’s tent 11 at least two or three times.
Nichols conceded he had not personally witnessed waterboarding, but “what I firmly believe to be the actions after”.
“I’ve seen members of the ERT exit tents and later I’ve seen asylum seekers come out of that tent covered in water, coughing,” he said.
The inquiry also heard testimony on claims guards strapped asylum seekers to bed frames with cable ties and then lifted up the frame before letting it crash to the ground. Wilson Security has categorically rejected the claims, but Nichols said he had seen detainees cable-tied to a fence.
Cable ties are on Nauru for use on construction, the head of the ERT, Brett McDonald told the inquiry, but are not issued to staff.
He later said “flexicuffs” – handcuffs that strongly resemble cable-ties – were available and were occasionally used to restrain people.
The inquiry’s chair, Alex Gallacher, later looked up flexicuffs on an electronic device, and described them as “basically cable ties”, noting it would be very easy for Nichols to mistake them as such.
At the hearing Wilson Security also answered questions about its staff spying on Hanson-Young during her visit to the centre.
Under questioning by Senator Scott Ludlam, Nichols said it was common knowledge among the ERT that Hanson-Young was being followed and there was “not a chance” supervisors did not know.
Ludlam said that would suggest someone had “lied to our faces on this committee”, to which Nichols agreed, but Rogers and McDonald later disputed the allegations.
The Wilson Security representatives added there was no instruction to guards to film Hanson-Young, and that a search of body-camera footage stored by guards had turned up nothing featuring the senator’s visit.
It emerged during the inquiry the “change of employment status” form for the senior Wilson security guard who ordered the spying and was subsequently suspended with pay during the investigation was lost.
A fire six months earlier during a July 2013 disturbance had caused the loss of an IT system, the inquiry heard. “We were relying on people saving things to their desktop computers,” McDonald said.
Ludlam questioned what else went missing during that time, given Wilson Security had given a number of responses to allegations that searches for evidence had turned up nothing.
Nichols also accused Wilson Security of lying to the committee about drug and alcohol testing and the existence of a whistleblower hotline. He said there was no drug and alcohol testing before July2015, and there was no phone number.
He accused supervisors of shredding incident reports and instructing him to shred them over the six months he worked in the control room – a claim denied by Wilson Security.
Stakeholders who had submitted the reports, such as Save the Children, “would be none the wiser”, he said. The shredding machine was referred to as “File 13” he said.
McDonald said there was a shredder at the centre, but it was copies of reports, not originals, that were shredded.
