A 26 year-old Iranian refugee was found dead on the island of Nauru due to apparent suicide. He had been held in an Australian refugee detention camp on Nauru for five years and had suffered from depression since he was detained in Iran at age 10. His wife, severely ill mother, and 12 year-old brother are still being held on Nauru. He is the 12^th person to die in Australia’s offshore refugee detention camps and the fifth to die in the Nauru camp.

The Refugee Action Coalition’s Ian Rintoul said the news had heavily impacted those still on Nauru, saying “News of the man´s death has shattered the asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru. He was a well known, well liked, athletic young man who did everything he could for his brother and mother.” Rintoul said the Australian government had ignored calls for support from the man’s family and other detained refugees struggling with mental health issues. “There have been so many warnings, but the toll mounts day by day; the neglect continues. So many cases of medical neglect,” he said.

Others shared in Rintoul’s condemnation of the Australian government. Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian refugee and journalist held captive on Manus, expressed his disappointment with the Australian government on Twitter, writing, “[The] Department of Home Affairs has referred the case to Nauruan authorities as always. It’s Australia that is responsible for his death not Nauru! You are the one who exiled people there and denied them medical treatment and support.”

Natascha Bucher, a detention advocacy manager for the NGO Asylum Seeker Resource Center, highlighted the wide scope of the problem in a statement. “There are hundreds of people in urgent need of medical care to address complex conditions including major depression and suicidal ideation, who are being denied care under the Minister,” she said. “We call on the Minister to evacuate everyone in offshore processing to Australia immediately to prevent more lives being lost.”

Australia’s government clearly bears some responsibility for the recent death, given that their policies created the poor conditions in the detention camp responsible for the man’s suicide. In the short term, the Australian government should allocate the appropriate resources to improve medical conditions in the detention camps. In the long term, the Australian government should accelerate efforts to permanently resettle detained refugees in other countries, or consider changing their policy to allow detained refugees to permanently resettle in Australia.

The recent death highlights the inhumane conditions in Australia’s refugee detention centers. Refugees attempting to enter Australia by boat are sent to detention camps on the islands of Nauru and Manus and barred from resettling in Australia. The stated goal of the policy is to deter asylum-seekers from taking dangerous journeys to reach Australia by sea, but the UN and other advocacy groups have criticized the long detention times and poor conditions within the camps. Just one month ago, a Rohingya refugee from Myanmar died in the Manus camp after jumping from a bus. Combined, the poor conditions within the camps and prevalence of mental health issues plaguing those detained put a significant number of people at risk of serious harm. Australia has attempted to mitigate the problem by resettling more than a hundred of the detained refugees to countries like the United States. Former President Barrack Obama agreed to resettle Australian refugees in the U.S., which some saw as repayment for Australia’s resettling of Honduran and Salvadoran refugees from a camp in Costa Rica. However, despite these efforts, over 1,600 refugees remain detained in Australia’s offshore camps.

In conclusion, the recent suicide highlights the need for immediate action to fix Australia’s harsh refugee policy. Even if Australia chooses to continue detention centers for the sake of deterrence, there is no reason to subject people to harsh conditions that foster mental health issues for years on end. The only question for the future is whether non-profit advocacy organizations will be successful in pushing the Australian government to take the actions necessary to remedy the current injustice of the status quo.