(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
The United Nations Refugee Agency has condemned Australia's treatment of asylum seekers.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has released two new reports based on the findings of UN officials who visited asylum processing centres at Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island in October.
The officials believe asylum seekers at the two centres are spending too long in detention waiting for their asylum claims to be assessed and are having to endure unacceptably harsh living conditions.
Michael Kenny reports.
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The UNHCR says too many asylum seekers are waiting in limbo at the offshore centres and this uncertainty is having a negative impact upon their mental health.
The refugee agency says only one asylum seeker has had a claim assessed on Nauru in 14 months and no decisions have been finalised at the centre in Papua New Guinea in the same timeframe.
A UNHCR spokesman in Geneva, Adrian Edwards believes the current treatment of asylum seekers at the two centres does not meet international standards.
"We are also worried that they do not provide a fair and efficient system for assessing refugee claims. They do not provide safe and humane refugee conditions of treatment in detention and do not provide adequate and timely solutions for recognised refugees. At both centres, we have concerns about the pyscho-social well-being of vulnerable people who in many cases can include survivors of torture and trauma and unaccompanied children."
The UNHCR report claims the Nauru centre is an unacceptable place for children, who lack access to adequate educational and recreational facilities.
It also claims asylum seekers are living in hot, cramped and unhygienic conditions at Nauru.
UN officials say they observed rats at the centre during the visit in October.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has defended the government's decision to send children offshore.
He argues that creating any exemptions to the rules would simply encourage people smugglers to see Australia as a softer target.
But refugee advocate Pamela Curr from the Melbourne-based Asylum Seeker Resource Centre believes the conditions at the Nauru centre are unacceptable.
"I'm really concerned that the thought that these children are living in a communal camp under vinyl in 45 degree heat with limited water, with rats running around. You can see from the (UNHCR) report that the childrens' parents raised the issue of the rats as one of their main concerns. What Australian parent would put their children knowingly in this terrible situation?"
Perth-based refugee advocate Jack Smit says the UNHCR report has also highlighted the need for a set timeframe to assess asylum seekers claims.
He says when mandatory detention was first introduced in 1992 under the Keating government, asylum claims had to be assessed in 273 days.
Mr Smit, from Project Safe Com, believes the rights of asylum seekers were undermined when that time limit was scrapped under the Howard government.
He believes Australia should adopt the Greens policy of increasing the number of places in the refugee and humanitarian program to 25 thousand per year, up from the current 14 thousand places.
Mr Smit believes that could lead to the eventual closure of offshore processing centres on Manus Island and Nauru.
And he says an expanded humanitarian program would help deter people smuggling by giving asylum seekers a safer path to permanent residency.
"And that is the line that the Greens have always followed. The Greens have been caricatured as an open borders party. That's not true! The Greens are the only ones who in the parliament have constantly and consistently argued for the fact that if you take people who are already assessed as refugees by the UNHCR from Indonesia by plane, then everyone who steps on your plane does not look for a boat."
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