According to a prosecutor at the international criminal court the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers is “cruel, inhuman or degrading”
Although the finding described Australia’s offshore detention regimes on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island as a “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment” and unlawful under international law, the court prosecutor stopped short of saying the treatment warrants the prosecution of the Australian government because while the imprisonment of refugees and asylum seekers formed the basis of a crime against humanity, the violations did not rise to a level that would warrant further investigation.
In correspondence sent to the independent MP for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, the office of the international criminal court prosecutor described conditions in the camps as dangerous and harsh, with sporadic acts of physical and sexual violence committed by the staff at the facilities which constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment and may be deemed a violation of fundamental rules of international law.
Wilkie first wrote to the international criminal court in 2014, alleging the government of then prime minister Tony Abbott had breached international law by engaging in the imprisonment, deportation and forcible transfer of a population. He remained in regular correspondence with the court, providing it with evidence of abuses including deaths in detention through murder and medical neglect, the indefinite detention of children and forced family separation.
The court found that some of the conduct at the processing centres on Nauru and on Manus Island also appeared to constitute the underlying act of imprisonment or other severe deprivations of physical liberty under laws relating to crimes against humanity but the office of the prosecutor said the matters did not fall within the court’s jurisdiction and did not demonstrate the “contextual elements” to warrant further investigation for prosecution.
The statute that created the court has been ratified by 123 countries including Australia.
