UN denounces 'inhumane' detention of refugees
Thursday 29 August 2013 @ 8.52 a.m. | Immigration
The UN's Human Rights Committee has called for the release of 46 mainly Tamil refugees, calling their detention 'cruel, inhumane and degrading.'
Australia is accused of almost 150 violations of international law. The committee has said the detention was arbitrary and broke the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Australia now has 180 days to respond to the findings.
The complaint was first lodged three years ago by Professor Ben Saul, from the University of Sydney's Centre for International Law, who said that the findings are 'embarrassing' and will damage Australia's international reputation.
The detainees were initially given refugee status, but have been held in detention for at least two and a half years after being found to be a security risk. They say they have been unable to make any legal challenge in Australian courts.
The federal government has explained to the UN committee that releasing classified details would compromise the assessment system and national security; however, it said that the refugees posed one or more of three specific risks:
- Fomenting violence in Australia;
- Providing a safe haven for organisations to prepare attacks against their homeland's government, and
- Raising funds in Australia for foreign terrorists.
Amnesty International has labelled Australia's policy of indefinite detention of refugees as 'an international embarrassment.'
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