Australian asylum policies under fire at U.N. rights review

By Stephanie NebehayGENEVA (Reuters) - Australia came under fire on Monday at the United Nations for its offshore processing of asylum claims, facing allegations that it sent back some refugees in defiance of international law and detention of child migrants.Sterilizations of disabled and discrimination against indigenous people were other concerns raised during the U.N. Human Rights Council examination of Australia's record, part of a regular review of each U.N. member state held every four years.Successive Australian governments have vowed to stop asylum seekers from reaching the mainland, sending those intercepted on unsafe boats to camps on Christmas Island, and more recently Manus island in Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the South Pacific."Irregular migration flows pose particular challenges to a managed and equitable system of migration," John Reid, first assistant secretary in Australia's attorney-general department who led the delegation, told the 47-member Geneva forum."Australia's strong border protection measures have played a key role in enabling the government to maintain meaningful and significant humanitarian resettlement and assistance programs," he said, citing its offer to resettle 12,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq.Australian opposition politicians on Monday demanded that the government disclose the extent of destruction caused by riots at an immigration detention center on the remote Australian outpost of Christmas Island following the death of an asylum seeker."No asylum seeker who engages our (international) protection obligation is ever returned to a situation of danger," said Andrew Goledzinowski, ambassador for people-smuggling issues in Australia's foreign ministry. No one had died trying to reach Australian shores over the past 18 months.Some 2,044 people are currently in immigration detention, including 113 children, "down from a peak of 2,000 (children) in middle of 2013", said Steve McGlynn of the immigration and border protection department. A further 30,000 migrants were "approved to live in the community".Egypt, Fiji, France, Germany, Britain, the United States and Sweden were among delegations criticizing Australia's asylum policies.Germany called on Australia to remove children and their families from detention centers "in particular survivors of torture and trauma". Australia should review its policy of offshore processing of asylum-seekers "making sure that the international obligation of non-refoulement (not sending back refugees) is strictly upheld", Germany's Franck Jarasch said.Egypt's Mohammed Elmolla said: "Reports concerning discrimination, rising Islamaphobia, mandatory immigration detention and the policy of 'pushbacks' of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers' boats in international waters require serious and prompt attention."Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement issued ahead of the review: "More than three years after the offshore detention camps were established on Manus Island, not a single recognized refugee has been resettled in Papua New Guinea."(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Richard Balmforth)Join the conversation about this story
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