Pacific / Nauru

Petition wants Australian offshore detention camps closed

15:20 pm on 16 June 2015

A petition signed by 65,000 people in Australia calling for the immediate shut down of its asylum seeker detention camps abroad is to be presented to the Australian Senate.

The Greens Party is to present the petition which will ask that the appeals for refugee status are assessed on the Australian mainland.

The camps on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and on Nauru have been widely condemned by doctors, academics, former workers and international agencies such as Amnesty International and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The Refugee Action Coalition says the camps are a major policy failure by the Australian government and a key part of a set of policies which have destroyed Australia's reputation.

The UN Committee Against Torture has said conditions in the camps amount to cruel, inhuman, and unlawful punishment.