Healthcare and clinical ethics in Australian offshore immigration detention

Abstract

Part of Australia’s ongoing efforts to deter asylum seeker boat arrivals, offshore immigration detention has been widely criticised since its reintroduction in 2012. These environments undermine the principles that would normally drive clinical and ethical decision-making, resulting in circumstances that are uniquely problematic and compromising. In addition to the more general complaints about Australia's policy of mandatory immigration detention, riots, violence, abuse, self-harm and a number of deaths have been reported in offshore centres. Centring on a number of recent inquiries, this article provides a review of the literature, focusing on the uniquely problematic issues faced in Australia's offshore immigration detention centres.