By Emma Farge and Alasdair Pal
GENEVA/SYDNEY (Reuters) – A U.N. panel has found Australia breached a human rights treaty by detaining a group of asylum seekers, including minors, on the remote Pacific island of Nauru even after they were granted refugee status, it said in a statement on Thursday .
Under Australia’s tough immigration policy, those trying to reach the country by boat have been sent to detention centers – including on the South Pacific island nation of Nauru – for so-called “offshore processing” since 2013. Such facilities have previously come under scrutiny from rights groups.
The UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors the legally binding International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 and was asked to consider the refugee group’s complaint, found that Australia had breached two provisions of the treaty: one on arbitrary detention and one protecting the right to challenge his detention in court.
He asked Australia to provide compensation to the victims and ensure that similar violations are not repeated.
“Renting operations does not absolve states of responsibility,” said Committee member Mahjoub El Haiba. “Offshore detention facilities are not human rights-free zones for the state party, which remains bound by the provisions of the Covenant.”
A spokesman for the Australian Department of Home Affairs said in a statement that it was engaging with the UN on the complaints.
“It has been the Australian Government’s consistent position that Australia does not exercise effective control over regional processing centres,” the statement said.
“We welcome Nauru’s continued partnership in the effective delivery of regional processing arrangements.”
The office of Nauruan Prime Minister David Adeang did not respond to a request for comment.
Australia’s policy of detaining asylum seekers offshore is popular with voters. Their government says they are treated with dignity, fairness and respect and are given access to a range of support services.
The UN committee’s finding followed a 2016 petition by a group of 24 asylum seekers from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar who were intercepted while trying to reach Australia by boat in 2013, when they had between 14 -17 years.
The group, who were unaccompanied and transferred to Nauru from Christmas Island in 2014, were held in an overcrowded Regional Processing Center where they did not have access to sufficient water and health care, the UN said in a statement.
Almost all of the minors there suffered deterioration in well-being, including weight loss, self-harm, kidney problems and insomnia, it said.
They remained in detention on Nauru even after all but one of the group were granted refugee status, the statement said. He did not specify the total duration of their detention or provide information about their identities or current whereabouts.
Australia has argued that there is no evidence that the alleged violations took place within its jurisdiction, the UN said in a statement. However, the board found the Nauru facility to be considered under Australia’s jurisdiction, citing the country’s role in its construction and financing.
In another case filed with the same committee, an Iranian refugee detained in Nauru was also found to have been subject to arbitrary detention, the statement said.
