美国国家公共电台 NPR What Happens When An Aid Group Sees Abuse, But Is Sworn To Secrecy?

What Happens When An Aid Group Sees Abuse, But Is Sworn To Secrecy¹?

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

We've been tracking the story of asylum-seekers on the Pacific island nation of Nauru. As we've heard on this program, the aid group Save the Children signed up to help refugees who sought shelter in Australia. Instead, it was accused of staying quiet about abuse. A former employee made that accusation², Victoria Vibhakar, who told us yesterday that she became a whistleblower.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

VICTORIA VIBHAKAR: I chose to make a report, an anonymous³ submission⁴, detailing the abuse and systemic violations⁵ of human rights to children and families on Nauru. And I attached several thousand pages of documentation as well, and I sent it to the commission.

MONTAGNE: Australia's human rights commission was investigating that country's rather unusual refugee policy. The Australian government keeps its migrants out of the country, parking them instead on a distant island, Nauru. For a time, Save the Children Australia provided services on that island, and our colleague Steve Inskeep brings us the agency's side of the story this morning.

STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE⁶: Mat Tinkler of Save the Children told us via Skype his organization never approved of Australia's policy but most Australians do.

MAT TINKLER: So in the election that happened in June here in Australia, we had the federal minister for immigration saying in a public interview that these people will come and take your jobs. And he said at the same time they'll come and accept your welfare benefits, so it was a bit of a non sequitur, that argument. But it was a deliberate attempt, in my view, to play on the fears of people.

INSKEEP: Despite its reservations, Save the Children decided⁷ to do what it could for refugees on that island called Nauru. And Mat Tinkler acknowledged to us Save the Children also agreed to sign confidentiality⁸ agreements.

Why did Save The Children agree to that?

TINKLER: Because it was a condition of supporting children in that terrible environment, so that is correct. We were required to sign confidentiality agreements. I've signed one myself. What that means is when we saw rights violations or the impact of detention⁹ that was grave enough to warrant us speaking out publicly, we would do that. But it was important that we did that in a careful and controlled manner.

It wasn't appropriate that we had, you know, all of our 300 staff members speaking to the media about any they may have observed. That would not have allowed us to continue working in that environment, and our contract would have been terminated.

INSKEEP: I'm trying to get a sense of why Australia felt it necessary to demand such strict confidentiality.

TINKLER: My view on this - the Australian government has deliberately¹⁰ cloaked this area in secrecy because if the Australian public had a full view of the impacts of this policy, they would not support it. There's no independent human rights monitor or child rights advocate working in the detention environment in places like Nauru, and there should be. It is a problem, and we have advocated strongly and consistently to unveil the cloak of secrecy to allow people to judge whether this policy is worth it.

INSKEEP: So what happened behind that cloak of secrecy on the island of Nauru?

TINKLER: So one of the things that I'm very proud of is that Save the Children was the agency in that environment who was essentially¹¹ the conscience of the island. So when children didn't have appropriate footwear, we were the ones advocating to get them decent shoes. When children were being educated in a tent, we were the ones advocating to get them out of those tents and into an air conditioned facility so they could actually learn. And publicly, we were the ones advocating to end this process because the impacts and the harm being done to children and their families were extreme and should not be tolerated in a country like Australia.

INSKEEP: But when a human rights commission, the Australian Human Rights Commission, came around asking not about kids' shoes but about child sexual abuse and criminal violations of that sort and asked for information, we're told that Save the Children told them nothing.

TINKLER: Well, that's not correct. I gave evidence in person to that human rights commission inquiry¹², and we also provided a written submission to the inquiry. The commission very much understood that we had to play a very careful balancing act here between providing evidence to the inquiry and maintaining our position in Nauru. And I can tell you that the commissioner¹³ herself told me that it was in everyone's interest that Save the Children remain in Nauru and therefore she understood that our evidence need to be finely calibrated¹⁴.

Importantly, however - and this is a really key point - the fact that we didn't say publicly to that commission we observed incidents of child abuse does not mean that we weren't reporting consistently any type of issue that we observed like that to the government. This was standard practice. It happened all the time, I've got to say, and far too often on Nauru. When our staff observed that kind of incident, we would alert the government. We would alert all the service providers. We would alert the police on Nauru. We would make sure that incidents were investigated to the best of our ability. But ultimately, it was a matter for the government then what they did with that information. It wasn't a matter for us to determine.

INSKEEP: You used the word calibrated. You calibrated your testimony¹⁵ to the commission. Do you have some sympathy then for former Save the Children employees, one of whom has spoken on this program, who felt that the organization didn't reveal enough and ended up giving their own documents to the inquiry?

TINKLER: Yes, I have some sympathy for them. These people worked at the coalface of human suffering on Nauru. And I can understand why this is a highly emotive and personal issue for them, and they want to see justice for those people. And I'm not going to criticize that at all, but what I will say is most staff would not have been able to have that opportunity to observe and work and support those children, and speak to the media now as some of them are doing, had we not stayed on Nauru. And I can tell you that the night I gave evidence to that human rights commission inquiry, we had a phone call from the government threatening to terminate our contract because I gave that evidence.

INSKEEP: That's Mat Tinkler of Save the Children Australia. His group sent us a transcript¹⁶ of his testimony from back in 2014. And in that testimony, he discussed limited access to books or to exercise and a mood of despondency. The testimony did not discuss allegations of abuse. More recently, Save the Children lost its contract to work on Nauru, and Tinkler says the aid group is now more vocal¹⁷ in its criticism.

Did you feel that you were in a morally treacherous¹⁸ place?

TINKLER: When I went to Nauru, I came back feeling like I'd witnessed a stain on history. And I felt like I had witnessed something that will be judged very harshly over time. And how we responded to it was to walk this fine line as best we could around providing support to those children and helping¹⁹ them and their families.

INSKEEP: We have invited Australia's government to discuss its treatment of refugees.

1 secrecy   

n.秘密，保密，隐蔽

参考例句：

• All the researchers on the project are sworn to secrecy.该项目的所有研究人员都按要求起誓保守秘密。
• Complete secrecy surrounded the meeting.会议在绝对机密的环境中进行。

2 accusation   

n.控告，指责，谴责

参考例句：

• I was furious at his making such an accusation.我对他的这种责备非常气愤。
• She knew that no one would believe her accusation.她知道没人会相信她的指控。

3 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

4 submission   

n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出

参考例句：

• The defeated general showed his submission by giving up his sword.战败将军缴剑表示投降。
• No enemy can frighten us into submission.任何敌人的恐吓都不能使我们屈服。

5 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 confidentiality   

n.秘而不宣，保密

参考例句：

• They signed a confidentiality agreement. 他们签署了一份保守机密的协议。
• Cryptography is the foundation of supporting authentication, integrality and confidentiality. 而密码学是支持认证、完整性和机密性机制的基础。

9 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

10 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

11 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

12 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

13 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

14 calibrated   

v.校准( calibrate的过去式和过去分词 )；使标准化；使合标准；测量（枪的）口径

参考例句：

• Power pesticide dusters can be calibrated and used to apply pertilizer. 动力杀虫剂可以调整用来施肥。 来自辞典例句
• The flexible diaphragm is connected to a plat cantilever-calibrated spring. 柔韧的膜片一扁平的悬臂校正弹簧相连。 来自辞典例句

15 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

16 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

17 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

18 treacherous   

adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的

参考例句：

• The surface water made the road treacherous for drivers.路面的积水对驾车者构成危险。
• The frozen snow was treacherous to walk on.在冻雪上行走有潜在危险。

19 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。