Revealing hidden inequalities: leaked files, shadow accounts and racialised border control

Purpose This paper investigates how leaked documents can function as tools of shadow accounting to expose and challenge the racialised inequalities embedded in Australia's offshore detention regime – inequalities that further marginalise asylum-seekers already displaced by conflict, persecution and hardship in their countries of origin or transit. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on a Critical Dialogic Accounting and Accountability (CDAA) framework, we analyse the “Nauru Files” – over 2,000 leaked incident reports from Australia's offshore detention centre on Nauru (2013–2015). We interpret these documents as counter-hegemonic artefacts that offer rare insight into the systemic racial injustices and institutionalised forms of violence embedded within border control practices. Through reflexive, theory-informed analysis, we construct a shadow account as a form of CDAA praxis to interrogate how harm, racialisation and resistance are documented, minimised or erased within official reporting practices. Findings The analysis demonstrates how the Nauru Files present counter-hegemonic opportunities to produce shadow accounts to illuminate hidden and racialised forms of suffering and control. These leaked records document repeated instances of abuse, neglect and institutionalised harm, highlighting the compounded inequalities faced by asylum-seekers who, having fled conflict and persecution, are subjected to further dehumanisation within offshore detention. We argue that such leaks and the shadow accounts constructed from them help expose these injustices and can contribute to broader mobilisation among actors, including asylum-seekers, activists, journalists and scholars, to resist and contest the border-industrial complex. Research limitations/implications By situating leaked documents within CDAA praxis, this study expands accounting's capacity to engage with global racialised inequalities. The paper highlights how accounting practices can expose state-sanctioned violence and amplify the calls for justice from those denied the opportunity to live free from persecution in host countries like Australia. Originality/value This study is among the first to explicitly centre race and forced displacement within shadow accounting and CDAA research. It positions leaked documents as potent counter-accounting mechanisms that surface otherwise silenced experiences and challenge the legitimacy of oppressive systems, offering an innovative contribution to the literature on accounting for migration and inequalities.