Australia's immigration minister, Peter Dutton, says he's seeking further advice on allegations made by workers at the Nauru asylum seeker detention centre that Canberra knew about abuse and did nothing about it.
In an open letter this week, 23 current and former employees said the Australian immigration department tolerated the physical and sexual assault of women and children for more than 17 months.
It says abuse was reported long before the immigration department initiated the Moss Review, which identified several cases of abuse and sparked a Senate inquiry.
This week, Mr Dutton told Australia's Sky News he understood that the former minister, Scott Morrison, was made aware of allegations late last year, then referred the matter to the then acting secretary of the department, who commissioned the Moss review.
