A five-year-old Iranian girl who has spent more than a year in Australia's offshore Nauru detention centre has been prescribed anti-depressants, has self-harmed by swallowing shampoo and nails and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, her lawyer says. She is now living in fear of being returned from a holding centre in Darwin to troubled Nauru for years while her family's asylum claim is processed, lawyer John Lawrence said. The girl's father has applied for a protection visa for his family after fearing for his life and fleeing form the military police in Iran. The visa can take up to three years to process according to the Department of Immigration. Mr Lawrence told Daily Mail Australia: 'The prospect of that little girl remaining in any type of detention is horrific; she might not still be alive.' A five-year-old Iranian girl is living in fear of being returned to Nauru detention centre . 'The medical reports tell me there have been reported incidences of her self-harming ... swallowing shampoo and swallowing nails.' He also told the ABC he was concerned about the possibility of abuse at Nauru. 'I have medical material relating to this five-year-old girl, which informs me that she is displaying inappropriate sexualised behaviour, as a consequence of experiences that she has either seen or experienced directly or indirectly, on Nauru,' he said. Mr Lawrence told Daily Mail Australia he met with the girl in detention in Darwin on Sunday and said it is the most heartbreaking case he has ever worked on. 'In over 20 years as a criminal barrister I cannot explain how obscene it is to go on a prison visit to a client across the desk when the client is a five-year-old little girl. 'In the interview with the wee girl on Sunday, I just swooned and thought this is completely beyond the pale and I know she's been a prisoner for over a year in the sh*t pit that is Nauru.' 'I guess like all children she is strong, resilient and lovely, however when you ask her to write her name and she writes her detention number not her name and you ask her to draw her picture and she draws a stick person with a stitched up mouth, you realise how wrong it is for a five-year-old old to be in jail and of course her medical results completely confirm that,' he said. The girl wrote her boat number when asked to write her name, and when asked to draw a picture of life on Nauru drew an image of a person with their lips sewn shut . Mr Lawrence said doctors and psychologists have recommended that she be released and that she shouldn't be returned to Nauru because of her post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorder. 'The government have got a child who has been damaged in their detention facility and they know she's been damaged in their facility, she's psychologically seriously damaged and shouldn't be returned to Nauru.' Mr Lawrence said the girl's mother had suffered episodes of depression as well as attempting self-harm. Mr Lawrence will lodge an injunction in the Federal Court against the Department in an attempt to block the family's return to Nauru. A department spokesperson said all detainees had access to health care 'at a standard generally comparable' to that available to the Australian community. But the department would not comment on an individual's medical issues or transfer arrangements. 'Persons brought to Australia from a regional processing centre for medical reasons are clearly informed and clearly know that they will be returned ... to continue their refugee assessment and processing,' the spokesperson said. A former building at Nauru detention centre in Nauru pictured in 2012. Lawyers are fighting to stop the girl being sent back to the island . Last week the United Nations Children's Fund says Australia is violating the rights of children being sent from Nauru to Cambodia under the refugee transfer agreement. UNICEF has joined a chorus of international agencies in raising concerns over the $A40 million refugee resettlement pact with Cambodia, with the first of the refugees expected to be flown out from Nauru this week. UNICEF has warned that no government policy or action should knowingly put children's lives or their well being at increased risk. A UNICEF spokesman, Chris de Bono, said Australia and Cambodia needed to be aware of their international obligation under the convention to protect children. 'The world has an expectation that as signatories to the convention on the rights of the child, whatever action they take, they will have given due consideration to its impact on children and they will put the best interests of the child as a primary concern in making any decision,' de Bono told AAP. A recent Australian report by a former integrity commissioner, Philip Moss, on conditions at the Australian funded centre in Nauru was highly critical and detailed allegations of rape and assault, self harm among children, and trading of sexual favours for drugs. The UNICEF comments come against a backdrop of heightened fears over the welfare of the detainees both in Nauru and at detention centres in Australia, especially the Wickham Point facility in Darwin. On Saturday a number of detainees with at least one three-month-old child were flown from Darwin to Nauru despite protests. In the coming week, possibly as early as Monday, a charter plane is expected to fly out from Nauru with some 10 refugees for resettlement in Cambodia.
Lawyers are fighting to stop Iranian child being sent back to Nauru . She is currently being held at a detention centre in Darwin . Lawyer John Lawrence says 'she might not be alive' if she's sent back . She wrote her name as her detention number and draws a disturbing self-portrait showing her mouth stitched up . Her family's asylum claim could take three years to process .