In maiden speech, new high commissioner will point to a ‘chain of human rights violations’ in detention of asylum seekers
The new United Nations high commissioner for human rights will use his maiden speech to accuse Australia of causing a “chain of human rights violations” through its policy of detaining asylum seekers offshore.
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein’s speech, due to be delivered in Geneva on Monday, will be highly critical of Australia’s approach to detention and its policy of turning back boats carrying asylum seekers.
Al-Hussein, previously Jordan’s ambassador to the US, will say the detention of asylum seekers and other migrants should “only be applied as a last resort, in exceptional circumstances, for the shortest possible duration and according to procedural safeguards”.
“Australia’s policy of offshore processing for asylum seekers arriving by sea, and its interception and turning back of vessels, is leading to a chain of human rights violations, including arbitrary detention and possible torture following return to home countries.
“It could also lead to the resettlement of migrants in countries that are not adequately equipped.”
His remarks follow the month-long detention of 157 Tamil asylum seekers at sea in July by an Australian customs vessel.
Lawyers for the asylum seekers, who were held in windowless rooms for 21 hours a day, say the detained group were instructed on how to use lifeboats to return to India. The asylum seekers were subsequently taken to Australia and then onto Nauru, where they remain in detention.
The conditions faced by asylum seekers at Australian-run detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island have been severely criticised bydoctors and human rights advocates. On Saturday, Iranian asylum seeker Hamid Kehazaei died in a Brisbane hospital after contracting septicaemia on Manus Island from a cut on his foot.
Daniel Webb, director of legal advocacy at the Human Rights Law Centre, said it was embarrassing that the UN would single out Australia for criticism.
“The speech goes to show the seriousness with which Australia’s flagrant breaches of international law are regarded on the world stage,” Webb said.
“At a time of unprecedented global need, successive Australian governments have violated international law in selfish, short-sighted and politically motivated efforts to shift the problem.
“All that the government’s cruel and unlawful deterrence policies have achieved is to give vulnerable people who lack options one less option and to denigrate Australia’s international standing in the process.”
Al-Hussein’s speech will also criticise the detention of more than 50,000 unaccompanied children in the US, but praises the “good work” of Italian coastguards in assisting more than 100,000 migrants who headed to Europe by sea this year. But the new UN high commissioner will point out that 1,900 people have died crossing the Mediterranean, requiring more work to deal with this “tragic situation”.
“Human rights are not reserved for citizens only, for people with visas,” his speech will say. “They are the inalienable rights of every individual, regardless of his or her location and migration status.
“A tendency to promote law enforcement and security paradigms at the expense of human rights frameworks dehumanises irregular migrants, enabling a climate of violence against them and further depriving them of the full protection of the law.”
Most of al-Hussein’s speech will deal with the dire human rights situation in Syria, as well as the “terrible toll” in human life from Israel’s military assault on the Gaza strip.
The office of the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, did not respond to a request for comment on the speech.theguardian
