The New York Times has slammed Australia’s asylum seeker policies in a prominent 480 word piece by the paper’s editorial board.
“Australia’s inhumane imprisonment of desperate people is a disgrace,” the editorial board wrote.
Numerous editorials in the paper have criticised Australia's asylum seeker policies over the last few years.
The paper – currently laying the groundwork for an Australian expansion – criticised the expense, secrecy and questionable legality of the government’s treatment of refugees.
“This policy costs Australian taxpayers a staggering $419,000 per detainee a year and has made a nation that has historically welcomed immigrants a violator of international law,” it said.
“Australia’s policy is at odds with its obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention, which forbids transferring refugees to a place where they are likely to face harm,” the paper said.
The government maintains that its policy is legal and doesn’t violate international law, because refugees are not involuntarily returned to the countries from which they have fled.
“Australia has gone to great lengths to prevent outsiders from seeing what goes on in these offshore prisons,” the paper said.
The government of Nauru was profiting from the arrangement and shutting out international observers, the editorial said.
The government has said it makes no apologies for the tough measures taken to deter asylum seeker arrivals to Australia by sea, which it says is both a humanitarian and border control issue.
Hundreds of asylum seekers have drowned attempting to reach Australia by boat over the last decade.
“While the number of refugees held on Nauru and Manus Island is small compared with refugee numbers in the Middle East and Europe, Australia’s inhumane imprisonment of desperate people is a disgrace,” the New York Times said.
“The government should end its offshore processing of refugees and stop treating anyone who approaches its borders without a visa as automatically inadmissible,” is said.
“The United Nations can assist by redoubling efforts to resettle those stranded on the two islands and by putting pressure on Australia to change its policy.”
The paper’s condemnation of the policy comes days after the ABC’s Four Corners program aired a damning story on the treatment of children and young refugees trapped in limbo on Nauru as a result of Australian policies.
