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Comment by ryanlol | Hacker News Reader

It's worth noting that many, possibly even most, of these people are not actually refugees.

"refugee" is a rather well defined legal term.

Sure, we can't know whether they fit the formal refugee criteria until we assess their claims, but all are subject to offshore processing regardless of their true status.

I believe that even those granted refugee status are trapped on Nauru or Manis Island until they agree to resettlement in a third country like Cambodia.

The Government has refused to resettle refugees to New Zealand under an agreement brokered by an earlier Government, presumably on the grounds that humane treatment in a third country would further encourage maritime immigration.

I honestly don't see any issues here. As far as I understand the offshore processing centers aren't very different from what we have here in Europe.

What's wrong with Nauru? or Manis? or Cambodia? These are people fleeing from warzones for gods sake, any of those ought to be an immeasurably large improvement.

Pretty pointless distinction, the issue is their treatment by the Australian government not the environment they're leaving.

It is an incredibly important distinction, those found not to be valid are asked to return to their country of origin, how many of the people in these centers have been processed and refuse to leave?

Their status is x or it's not. Regardless they must be afforded basic human rights including legal representation that could see their status changed.

Legal representation isnt a human right.

http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

Additionally I haven't seen anything to suggest that the government is denying them from taking on their own legal council?

If you google "australia refugee camps" you will find allegations of rape, abuse, substandard living conditions, lack of medical treatment, indefinite detention and more, denounced by the UN who call it illegal, denounced by Amnesty International who have accused the government of violating ratified rights too. Three people have set themselves on fire to kill themselves, that's not a thing that happens where people are treated humanely.

It's also been made illegal to talk about the conditions of the camp if you work with the guests of the internment camps. That shouldn't even be possible, it's just basic oversight 101.

It's a bit sad that's not a human right yet but that document is a work in progress.

Citation needed, but I agree all those things are bad and have nothing to do with the concept of offshore processing, I agree that things should be more transparent but I do not think that would work in the favor of those who are detractors of the scheme. It should also be noted that Saudi Arabia is on the council for human rights with the UN, so I wouldn't hold their opinion very high.

You can google this stuff very easily, it's been reported a lot over the last couple of years.

I also posted a few links here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11766158

Specific allegations of legal counsel being refused:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/17/australia-refug...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/31/legal-aid-denie...

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/oct/18/lawyer...

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/may/02/widow-...

Paid for legal counsel has been refused, you said its a human right to have council not to have someone else pay for it.

Um, "allegations of rape" does nothing to convince Australians that these people should get to be in Australia. This sounds rather like the issue Germany is having.

Not really, illegal immigrants are committing a crime. Treating them as criminals is to be expected.

In any case, TFA failed to reveal any major issues with their treatment.

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