'Torture' comes to Australia. Details here.

A senior medical expert who oversaw the care of asylum seekers in detention for years has accused the Federal government of deliberately inflicting harm on detainees.

In the most high-profile criticism yet of the government’s asylum policy from inside the system, psychiatrist Dr Peter Young likened the treatment to ‘torture’.

 In an exclusive interview with The Guardian Australia, Dr Young said: “If we take the definition of torture to be the deliberate harming of people in order to coerce them into a desired outcome, I think it does fulfil that definition.”

He added that the detention centre environment was ‘inherently toxic’.

“It has characteristics which over time reliably cause harm to people’s mental health. We have very clear evidence that that’s the case,” he said.

Dr Young was  director of mental health for International Health and Medical Services, a private contractor that provides medical care to detention centres, for three years until one month ago.

Today, Michelle Grattan reports on the Immigation department’s response to the explosive claims.

By MICHELLE GRATTAN

Immigration department secretary Martin Bowles has said his department was seeking advice about new data on the mental health problems of children in detention, not trying to cover it up.

Bowles was responding to an allegation from psychiatrist Peter Young, former director of mental health services for the private provider International Health and Medical Services that has the immigration detention centre contract.

Young on Thursday told the Human Rights Commission inquiry into children in immigration detention that the department, presented with figures showing the significant mental health problems among child detainees, “reacted with alarm” and asked for the figures to be withdrawn from the reporting.

Bowles, in a reply to questions from The Conversation, said that Young in his evidence had referred to specific new data that had not previously been reported on.

“This was new data that had recently been reported to the department, and that the department was in the process of seeking advice from the department’s Chief Medical Officer and the Independent Health Adviser about.

“This is consistent with normal procedures and entirely appropriate when new data is to be reported on.”

Bowles said he completely rejected the characterising of Young’s evidence “as being indicative of some sort of cover-up by the department”.

The assertion that Immigration had asked its health service provider to not provide reporting on mental health was completely false, he said. The provider regularly reported on a range of health-related matters including mental health matters.

Bowles said it was timely to test the facts on a number of matters raised in the inquiry on Thursday, and he had asked the department to report urgently to him.

The inquiry heard evidence from other doctors who said that the arrangements at Christmas Island were inadequate for dealing with children and that people had their medications taken from them when they arrived, including a three-year-old child with epilepsy who then had fits.

When he received the information he would brief Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, “who is equally determined to ensure any ambiguity around these issues is clarified as soon as possible”.

“Certainly, if there are any incidents of wrongdoing by staff or evidence of systemic issues, those issues will be addressed appropriately.”

The department had been and would continue to be open and transparent in its dealings with the Human Rights Commission throughout its inquiry, he said.

Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

To read more on recent revelations about the treatment of children in detention, see this post.

 Click through these newly-released drawings by children in detention, courtesy of the Australian Human Rights Commission: