PAUL MALEY | The Australian
THE MANUS ISLAND processing centre set up by the Gillard government has been labelled an affront to international law, with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees accusing Australia of arbitrarily and unlawfully detaining transferred asylum-seekers.
The UNHCR handed down a scathing report on the Manus facility, describing the living arrangements as "harsh" and the conditions for the 34 children there as a "particular cause for concern".
The UNHCR also criticised Australia for failing to establish any system for processing the refugee claims of asylum-seekers, the first of whom were transferred to PNG in November.
The UNHCR sent a three-person team to visit the facility which, along with its sister facility on Nauru, was belatedly established by the Gillard government last year after the parliament refused to authorise Labor's Malaysia people-swap.
The UNHCR, which the Australian government noted harboured a "longstanding position of opposition" to offshore processing, was particularly critical of the absence of any processing arrangements for testing the refugee claims of asylum-seekers.
While PNG is a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees, it lacks the experience and the expertise to process the refugee claims of the 254 asylum-seekers detained there.
The team found that while PNG was drafting regulations that would establish a refugee-status-determination framework, there was no timeline as to when it would be done.
"There is no adequate domestic legal framework to implement PNG's responsibilities under the 1951 Refugee Convention," the report said.
The failure to process refugee claims meant asylum-seekers, children included, were effectively subject to ongoing and mandatory detention.
"The current PNG policy and practice of detaining all asylum-seekers at the closed centre ... amounts to arbitrary detention that is inconsistent with international human rights law," the UN body said.
The UNHCR urged the refugee claims of children be "prioritised" and that children be moved to child-friendly accommodation once preliminary health checks had been completed. "The current policy and practice of detaining children should be terminated as a matter of priority."
Keep it coming, Pete, moving along nicely, be interested to see how they move to the islands
PS nice stamp, Vertical watermark perhaps?
Posted by: harry topham | 06 February 2013 at 12:15 PM
Their illegal immigrants whom broke our immigration laws. Innocents (children ) is no defence against the law. The parents should be also charged with child abuse.
Posted by: vincent mycoe | 05 February 2013 at 06:18 AM