U.N. links Australian camps to depression

The U.N.'s Louis Joinet described conditions in Australia's Woomera detention camp as 'dramatic'

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- A U. N. group has said it is worried that the conditions of detention camps in Australia could directly lead to a "collective depression syndrome" that leads to self-harm and suicide attempts among asylum seekers.

The remarks follow in the wake of Australia coming under the global spotlight for its policy of mandatory detention for all asylum-seekers attempting to enter the country illegally.

Detainees in Australia "live day-in and day-out in agonizing uncertainty," working group chairman Justice Louis Joinet told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.

The Australian mandatory detention system and its appeal process gave detainees a feeling of "living in limbo," he added.

The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has been in Australia for the past two weeks, visiting detention centers and meeting senior government officials as well as critics of the system.

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The group's task has been to assess whether the detention camps are in breach of the U.N.'s international covenant on civil and political rights.

Spartan camps

Illegal immigrants are usually housed in spartan conditions in detention camps located in the remote Australian Outback.

The camps have been the scene of numerous riots and protests over the past two years, particularly at Curtin in Western Australia, and Woomera in South Australia, where inmates went on a two-week hunger strike and sewed their lips together.

Joinet said the group was also concerned about the detention of vulnerable people, especially children, pregnant women, the disabled and the elderly, in the camps.

He described conditions in the Woomera camp as "dramatic".

The working group will formally report on the Australian condition in March next year, but took the unusual step of speaking to media about its concerns ahead of that time.

'News to him'

Australia's Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said Tuesday the concerns of the U.N. group were "news to him".

Ruddock said he met the group on Monday and they had "expressed to me their thanks for the degree of access they received and the competency of our officers, who answered all of their questions and dealt with all of the issues they wanted to raise".

At the beginning of May, 1,258 people were held in Australian mainland detention camps, of whom more than one quarter were from Afghanistan.

Iraqis and Iranians make up another 20 percent of the detainee population, according to Department of Immigration figures.

More than 1,000 others are held in Australian-run camps on the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru and Papua New Guinea.