An Australian doctor who blew the whistle on the medical neglect and mistreatment of refugees and asylum-seekers on Nauru has won an international free speech award.

Dr Nick Martin, who was the most senior Australian doctor deployed on the island between November 2016 and August 2017, was awarded the 2019 Blueprint International Whistleblower Prize for speaking out about Australia’s “inflexible, unswerving and shameless” treatment of refugees.

Australian Doctor published Dr Martin’s horrifying account of his eight-month stint on Nauru, detailing his experience treating asylum-seekers and refugees in the offshore detention centre.

Despite the risk of facing criminal prosecution in Australia for speaking out on the abuses he saw — the Federal Government had attempted to gag doctors from speaking about their work in offshore detention — he said he had no choice but to go public.