* U.N. Human Rights Council reviews Australia's record
* Offshore processing of asylum claims criticised
* Australia says 2,044 migrants detained, including 113
children
(Adds detail, quote, end of debate)
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Australia was criticised on Monday
at the United Nations for its offshore processing of asylum
claims, detention of child migrants and reports it had sent back
legitimate refugees.
Sterilisations of the disabled and discrimination against
indigenous people were other concerns raised during the U.N.
Human Rights Council examination of Australia's record, part of
a regular review of each U.N. member held every four years.
Successive Australian governments have vowed to stop asylum
seekers from reaching the mainland, sending those intercepted on
unsafe boats to camps on Christmas Island, and more recently
Manus island in Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the South Pacific.
"Irregular migration flows pose particular challenges to a
managed and equitable system of migration," John Reid of the
attorney-general department, who led Australia's delegation,
told the Geneva forum.
"Strong border protection measures" had helped maintain the
government's significant humanitarian resettlement and
assistance programmes, he said, citing its offer to resettle
12,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq.
Australian opposition politicians demanded on Monday that
the government disclose the extent of destruction caused by
riots at an immigration detention centre on the remote
Australian outpost of Christmas Island following the death of an
asylum seeker. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1341M2
"No asylum seeker who engages our (international) protection
obligation is ever returned to a situation of danger," said
Andrew Goledzinowski, ambassador for people-smuggling issues in
the foreign ministry. No one had died trying to reach Australian
shores over the past 18 months.
Some 2,044 people are currently in immigration detention,
including 113 children, "down from a peak of 2,000 (children) in
middle of 2013", said Steve McGlynn of the immigration and
border protection department. A further 30,000 migrants were
"approved to live in the community".
Britain, Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, Switzerland and the
United States were among dozens of delegations criticising
Australia's asylum policies.
Denmark's delegation voiced concern at "the high percentage
of Aboriginal children between the ages of 10 to 12 years held
in detention centres".
Canada urged Australia to "prohibit the non-therapeutic
sterilisation of any individual who is not mentally competent to
consent" while Brazil decried "the poor living conditions of
indigenous peoples and their over-representation in the criminal
justice system".
"We acknowledge and recognise challenges remaining for
Australia that have been flagged, including in relation to
indigenous issues, migration issues, the rights of people with
disability as well as human trafficking issues," Reid said at
the end of the debate.