Australia allows its army to beat asylum seekers and denies them legal rights, a human rights watchdog said in a report released today.
In the 94-page study based on eight months of investigation, Human Rights Watch also said Canberra's hardline policy on asylum seekers violates international obligations to protect refugees.
"Australia has intercepted boats offshore in an effort to deter asylum seekers trying to sneak into the country. Men, women and children are then locked in detention camps, often in remote locations, while their applications for refugee status are reviewed in a process that can take years," it said..
"All of these measures violate international human rights standards . . . of freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment, freedom from arbitrary detention, the right to due process, and a refugee's right to travel documents," the report said.
Asylum seekers told the US-based rights group that they were assaulted by Australian troops who boarded boats intercepted off the country's coast last year, the report said.The soldiers "detained the single men under inhumane conditions, beat several of them with batons and used other unnecessary force against vulnerable refugee families", the report claimed.
But the government dismissed the report as inaccurate, and said it was a "defence of the actions of people smugglers".
Australia allows thousands of refugees to settle each year but only if international authorities have confirmed they are fleeing persecution.
AP