Australia causing refugees 'severe and lasting harm' - Human Rights Watch

---

More than 1,990 asylum seekers have drowned on voyages to Australia since January 2000, according to Monash University's Australian Border Deaths Database.

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | UK Desk
Source/Credit: Reuters
By Tom Westbrook | January 12, 2017

[excerpt]

Conditions in the camps are abusive and detainees "regularly endure violence, threats and harassment"

SYDNEY - Australia's poor treatment of refugees in offshore detention camps is "draconian" and is causing lasting damage to refugees and to Australia's reputation as a rights-respecting country, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.

Conditions in the camps are abusive and detainees "regularly endure violence, threats and harassment", Human Rights Watch said in the Australian chapter of its annual global report.

Under Australian rules, anyone intercepted while trying to reach the country by boat is sent for processing to camps in the Pacific Island nation of Nauru and at Manus Island, in Papua New Guinea (PNG). They are never eligible to be resettled in Australia.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration, asked about the report before its release, declined to comment but referred to earlier department assertions that conditions at the camps were adequate and were the responsibility of Nauru and PNG.

Those governments did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

[more ...]



Read original post here: Australia causing refugees 'severe and lasting harm' - Human Rights Watch


This content-post is archived for backup and to keep archived records of any news Islam Ahmadiyya. The views expressed by the author and source of this news archive do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Times of Ahmad. Times of Ahmad is not an organ of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, nor in any way associated with any of the community's official websites.