100 countries criticise Australia over treatment of migrants

More than 100 countries criticised Australia’s policy on migrants, describing it as “inhumane” during a UN human rights forum in Geneva.

Turkey expressed its resentment of Australia’s treatment of migrants in detention centres in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

“We remain concerned about Australia’s protection of the rights of migrants, especially of women and children at offshore facilities,” Turkey’s delegate in the forum, Umut Deniz, said.

Deniz called on Australia to “instil a transparent, human rights-based approach related to the treatment of asylum seekers following their arrival, including the cessation of transfers to third countries.”

On Monday, the UN Security Council session shed light on Australia’s practices regarding asylum requests. Such practices include returning boats, detaining children, threatening the lives of persons with special needs, violence against women and spreading Islamophobia.

During a session that lasted four hours, more than half of the UN Member States criticised Australia’s human rights records.

Australia’s Greens party politician Sarah Hanson-Young said yesterday that even “Australia’s closest allies, like the US, UK and Canada, are appalled by the way we treat people seeking asylum.”

Both Norway and Sweden noted that Australia is the only country in the world that adopts the policy of compulsory detention of asylum seekers in offshore islands.