According to the Guardian, the United Nations Human Rights Council (Human Rights Council) recently approved the practice of indefinite detention of refugees and asylum-seekers in Australia, and the agency has issued several reports within a year. Revealed that some refugees have been sentenced to up to nine years in prison without being charged.
It is understood that since June 2017, the Human Rights Council's working Group on arbitrary Detention has issued five condemnation opinions on the indefinite detention of asylum-seekers and refugees in Australia, Australia accused Australia of breaking the law and demanded that Australia's government immediately release five detained refugees and provide them with reasonable compensation.
But so far no one has been released, the youngest being 29 and the oldest 45. All five were held without charge and, in theory, their "sentence" could be life imprisonment. One of the longest-serving detainees is an asylum seeker from Afghanistan who has been held in an Australian detention centre since 2009. His asylum application has been rejected by Australia's government, but the appeal is still pending. Australia's government has become even more at risk in Afghanistan as it divulges his personal information online. Moreover, stateless Imas (Said Imasi) has been held without charge for more than eight years.
The working Group on arbitrary Detention investigation has been critical of the practice of government's indefinite detention in Australia. In several cases, Australia's approach has also been criticized by its own ombudsman. In the Imas case, the Australian Federal Ombudsman said he had been asking government to release Imas for the past six years, but "there seems to be no clear decision in the short term."
Australia's government argues that Australia's detention system is "essentially administrative and does not aim at punishment" and is effective in preventing illegal entry.
The United Nations has made it clear that the indefinite detention of refugees and asylum-seekers in Australia is illegal and must be stopped, said Bertison (Alison Battisson), a lawyer at Human Rights For All, a human rights law firm. She said Australia's policy is not only contrary to international law, but also "dehumanized" and "unacceptable."