28 Sep 2015

NZ detainee says medical attention lacking

10:57 am on 28 September 2015

More details are coming to light about the conditions on Australia's Christmas Island detention camp where New Zealanders are among those being held for indefinite periods.

Christmas Island detention centre

Christmas Island detention centre Photo: Supplied

Radio New Zealand has spoken to six people who have had their visas to stay in Australia cancelled because of their criminal records; all say the conditions on the island are terrible.

Bruce Haskell has lived in Australia since 1988 when he was in his twenties, and has been in and out of prison for drug offences.

He was taken to Christmas Island last Tuesday.

He said he was supposed to be getting tests for a suspected brain tumour, but now he could not even get a nurse to see him.

"When I seem to get under a lot of stress, I dunno, I get nosebleeds and it doesn't help," he said. "When I get a nosebleed it just, my head just feels like exploding but these arseholes here they don't care. They don't have a care factor. They should have a duty of care, they shouldn't have put me over here, you know. But what do you do?"

Another detainee, Kane Murphy, 25, has lived in Australia since he was seven.

He said he had not been allowed to call his family or speak to a case officer, and nobody had explained what would happen to him.

Other New Zealanders on the island have told of being in detention for months, and of poor conditions.

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