Australia slammed for poor human rights

Australia’s human rights record has come under criticism by the latest report by Amnesty International.

The reports states that three Sri Lankan asylum-seekers were “forcibly returned to Sri Lanka from Australia”, and they “were subsequently arrested and tortured.”

In April, the government suspended asylum applications for Sri Lankan and Afghan nationals for three and six months respectively.

While the Australian government In October, the government showed commitment to releasing several hundred children and families held under Australia’s mandatory detention regime, the government actions were in contradiction of its intent.

“The government announced it would establish two new centres to increase Australia’s detention capacity by 1,200 places, many of which were intended for children and families,” the report said.

In June last year, Australia reopened the controversial Curtin detention centre and detained some families in the remote mining town of Leonora in Western Australia.

In September, the Minister for Immigration announced plans to detain 300 asylum-seekers on an air force base at Weipa in the far north of Queensland.

Criticising Australia’s detention practice, the report said, “Mandatory, indefinite detention, coupled with poor conditions in some detention facilities, put a large number of detained asylum-seekers at risk of self-harm and mental illness.”