Australia accused in Amnesty report

Amnesty is concerned about the physical and mental health of detainees

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Amnesty International has accused Australia of failing to "practice what it preaches" on human rights, saying it is worried by a sharp turnaround in the nation's approach to humanitarian issues.

In particular, the policy of mandatory detention for asylum-seekers arriving on Australian shores was spotlighted by the human rights watchdog, which pushed Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock to find alternatives to its policy of keeping children with adults in the controversial camps.

But Ruddock defended his country's stance on Thursday, telling reporters that there would be no substantial changes to its mandatory detention policy.

The harsh conditions the asylum seekers face -- often in desert locations and sometimes for periods of more than a year -- has sparked a series of riots and protests, particularly at the largest camp -- Woomera -- in the South Australian desert.

Recently more than 200 inmates protested at Woomera, going on a two-week hunger strike, while about 50 detainees sewed their lips together with cotton.

Others, including some teenagers, attempted suicide and other forms of self-mutilation.

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Australia's treatment of asylum-seekers has come under so much fire that it prompted the first-ever visit by an Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan, who arrived on Tuesday for a five-day visit.

While Kahn said Australia had a good record in the past, supporting treaties and responding in a very humanitarian way to the Indo-Chinese refugee problem of the late 1970s and early 1980s, she said the country had a big role to play in promoting human rights in Asia.

"That's why we are concerned to see this sort of retrenchment of this positive human rights approach," she said.

She urged Australia to not only review the camps, but also address how they are monitored.

"These people have committed no crime, but there is no supervision of the way they are being held," Khan said.

'Not unwound'

Amnesty Secretary General Irene Khan says Australia must live up to its international obligations

But Ruddock stood firm on Thursday, telling reporters the government would not back down.

"Detention policy is public policy in Australia which will not be unwound," Ruddock told Reuters reporters after meeting Khan.

"My concern about families is that I'm not yet satisfied that there are arrangements which would meet my principle objective, which is to have people available for processing and for removal if they're not refugees."

Amnesty officials would be allowed to visit Woomera and other camps, including those in Papua New Guinea and Nauru as part of Australia's so-called "Pacific solution" to its illegal immigrant problem, at appropriate times, Ruddock added.

Since August last year, Australia has adopted a zero-tolerance approach to asylum-seekers, using the navy to intercept their boats and transferring those on board to detention camps in Nauru and Papua New Guinea's remote Manus Island.

'Dangerous'

Some of the asylum seekers detained at camps sewed their lips together in protest

But the secretary general said the "Pacific Solution" of farming out illegal migrants to Pacific Island nations was unsustainable.

"What is really disturbing is that no-one really knows what is going to happen to them at the end of it. The uncertainty is very dangerous."

Khan said Australians were generally very humanitarian people, who responded with sympathy and understanding to the plight of others when they were told the truth about what was happening.

The number of Afghan and Middle Eastern asylum seekers coming by boat has risen to about 5,000 a year, a trickle in comparison with other countries, but up from a few hundred several years earlier.

According to Immigration Department figures, there are currently 2,005 detainees in the camps including 259 women and 365 children. Thirteen of the children are unaccompanied.