Cross-party delegation from Denmark will visit Australian detention centre criticised after leaked files detailed asylum seeker abuse amid push from some rightwing Danish MPs for similar hardline regime in Europe

A parliamentary delegation from Denmark will visit the Pacific island of Nauru and gain rare access to Australia’s offshore detention centre to consider whether such controversial immigration policies could be adopted in Europe.

In the next week cross-party group of Danish politicians will visit Australia and Nauru and are seeking access to inspect the detention centre, according to reports by Danish radio station 24syv.

The visit to Nauru was confirmed to the Guardian in a statement from Danish MP Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen, who said her party was “highly critical” of Australia’s immigration policies, and would use the visit to closely scrutinise the policy. It has been planned for more than six months by the parliamentary delegation, with six of the 29 member parliamentary committee attending.

The visit has coincided with the publication of the Nauru files by the Guardian, which highlighted devastating trauma and abuse inflicted on children held in offshore detention in the largest cache of leaked documents released from inside its immigration regime.

Schmidt-Nielsen said she was deeply concerned about the reports of conditions on Manus and Nauru, and said: “The Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) is highly critical of this model. Nauru and Papua New Guinea are rather poor nations and highly dependent on the money they receive from the Australian government in return for housing the refugees.”

“The countries with which Australia is cooperating – including Cambodia – do not have a good human rights record, and we are very worried by the reports about conditions on Nauru and Manus Island.”

“It is also worrying that Australian teachers, doctors, nurses and others who have worked at Australian overseas refugee facilities – as we understand it – are not allowed to speak freely about their experience. This is a problem for a democratic debate about the refugee policy of the Australian government.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Asylum seekers in Nauru during the first of a series of rolling protests about conditions there in March 2016. Photograph: Supplied

“The timing of our visit a few weeks after The Guardian’s publication of the news about the Nauru Files is purely coincidental. But obviously it increases the focus on our visit – in Denmark and probably also in Australia and elsewhere.”

It also follows a challenge put forward by Australia’s opposition leader, Bill Shorten, to the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to join him in visiting Nauru and inspecting detention centre conditions.

The Nauru files: cache of 2,000 leaked reports reveal scale of abuse of children in Australian offshore detention Read more

Schmidt-Nielsen said she would also be meeting with the Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs, Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young and the UNHCR in Australia: “For me the visit is an opportunity to ask critical questions about the model. That is the reason why I have urged that the programme includes human rights NGOs and other critics of Australian refugee policy.”

The visit will also include Martin Henriksen a member of the far-right Danish People’s party, Marcus Knuth from the Danish government, Dan Jørgensen from the Social Democrats and Jacob Mark from the Socialists People’s party.

Simon Emil Ammitzbøll from the centre-right Liberal Alliance and Schmidt-Nielsen from the socialist-green unity party Enhedslisten are also in the delegation.

It is unclear how the delegation has been granted access to the detention centre on Nauru or whether it has occurred with the consent of the Australian or Nauruan governments. Comment has been sought regarding the circumstances of their access.

Access to the Nauruan detention centre has been largely cut off to Australian reporters. Only two journalists – one from the Australian newspaper and another from Channel Nine’s A Current Affair TV program – have been granted access to the detention centre in the past three years. Attempts by the Guardian to gain access have been repeatedly refused.

Heated debate has occurred in Denmark over how the country should respond to migration in Europe. Some far-right groups have urged the country to adopt a similar model to Australia’s system of offshore detention.

The Danish People’s party has even suggested asylum seekers should be sent to Greenland or Tanzania as part of a similar offshore arrangement.

The publication of the Nauru files renewed international attention on Australia’s immigration policies. The UK and New Zealand governments have faced calls to summon Australian high commissioners to explain the reports of abuse and assault in the incident reports published.