A young refugee woman from Somalia has set herself alight at an Australian detention centre on Nauru, just days after a 23-year-old man, Omid, died of injuries sustained in a similar act.

It comes amid moves by the Australian immigration department to shift detainees out to other mainland facilities, a worsening mental health crisis in the offshore processing centres, and the sudden partial collapse of Australia’s offshore processing policy.

Omid’s widow on Monday told Guardian Australia that she is being kept in a Brisbane hotel by immigration authorities, denied access to a lawyer and sedated.

According to several sources on the island, she is severely burned, and is currently in the Nauruan hospital. An Australian medical team specialising in trauma treatment is reportedly on the island and treating the woman.

“One of the witness who saw her said the situation is much worse than Omid,” said the source. Other refugees have been stopped from entering the hospital, but expressed concern that she be medically evacuated out soon after accusations of delays in treating Omid.

A Careflight medical jet left Townsville shortly after 8.30pm bound for the Solomon Islands capital of Honiara, which the flights to Nauru must stop at first. However, Guardian Australia could not confirm this was definitely sent for Hodan.

Hadon is one of three detainees returned to Nauru last week after receiving medical care in Australia for injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident late last year.

Last Tuesday morning she was forcibly removed by Border Force officers from the Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation.

The government of Nauru said it was “distressed that refugees are attempting such dreadful acts in order to attempt to influence the Australian Government’s immigration policies.”

Source:The Guardian