By Margot Staunton, RNZ Pacific senior journalist
The Australian government denies responsibility for asylum seekers detained in Nauru, following two decisions from the UN Human Rights Committee.
The committee stated that Australia remained responsible for the health and welfare of refugees and asylum seekers detained in Nauru.
“A state party cannot escape its human rights responsibility when outsourcing asylum processing to another state,” committee member Mahjoub El Haiba said.
After the decisions were released, a spokesperson for the Australian Home Affairs Department said “it has been the Australian government’s consistent position that Australia does not exercise effective control over regional processing centres”.
“Transferees who are outside of Australia’s territory or its effective control do not engage Australia’s international obligations.
“Nauru as a sovereign state continues to exercise jurisdiction over the regional processing arrangements (and individuals subject to those arrangements) within their territory, to be managed and administered in accordance with their domestic law and international human rights obligations.”
Australia rejected allegations
Canberra opposed the allegations put to the committee, saying there was no prima facie substantiation that the alleged violations in Nauru had occurred within Australia’s jurisdiction.
The committee disagreed.
“It was established that Australia had significant control and influence over the regional processing facility in Nauru, and thus, we consider that the asylum seekers in those cases were within the state party’s jurisdiction under the ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights),” El Haiba said.
“Offshore detention facilities are not human-rights free zones for the state party, which remains bound by the provisions of the Covenant.”
Refugee Action Coalition spokesperson Ian Rintoul said this was one of many decisions from the committee that Australia had ignored, and the UN committee lacked the authority to enforce its findings.
Detainees from both cases claimed Australia had violated its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), particularly Article 9 regarding arbitrary detention.
The first case involved 24 unaccompanied minors intercepted at sea, who were detained on Christmas Island before being sent to Nauru in 2014.
High temperatures and humidity
On Nauru they faced high temperatures and humidity, a lack of water and sanitation and inadequate healthcare.
Despite all but one being granted refugee status that year, they remained detained on the island.
In the second case an Iranian asylum seeker and her extended family arrived by boat on Christmas Island without valid visas.
Although she was recognised as a refugee by the authorities in Nauru in 2017 she was transferred to mainland Australia for medical reasons but remains detained.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
