13 Aug 2003

Nauru police charge security guards at Australian detention centre over drug offences

10:45 am on 13 August 2003

Drugs charges have been laid against security guards working at Australian immigration detention camps in Nauru.

The International Organisation for Migration says three security officers were charged with drug-related offences by Nauru police last week.

A spokesman for the IOM, Denis Nihill, says the three were charged in their private capacity.

Under an open-ended agreement reached with Nauru two years ago, Australia keeps hundreds of asylum seekers in camps there along with refugees who it wants to place in countries other than Australia.