USTRALIA has long been aware of the dangerous mental health consequences of mandatory immigration detention, a government health adviser says.
Head of the Department of Immigration's detention health advisory group Louise Newman said the psychological trauma of locking asylum seekers up became apparent 10 years ago.
"Government are aware that this is a damaging and very toxic system," she told ABC Radio.
"Yet the politics are such that it seems to be absolutely imperative."
Professor Newman agreed with the Australian Human Rights Commission's findings that there were high rates of self-harm and suicidal tendencies in detainees from Sydney's Villawood detention centre, the Herald Sun reported.
"Villawood certainly is serious in terms of the cluster of suicides (there)," she said.
"Whenever we have in close proximity people killing themselves then that raises very serious issues about the function of the system."
Her comments came after news that asylum seekers shipped overseas under the proposed "Malaysian solution" could be caned if they step out of line in detention.
Living conditions at refugee camps in Malaysia have been condemned as crowded and unhygienic, with some inmates reported to have died from disease spread by rats.
Malaysia flogs up to 6000 detainees a year for immigration offences, using a rattan cane that causes visible injuries and scarring. The law allows guards to use the punishment on children.
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen denied asylum seekers sent to Malaysia from Australia will be caned.
He said he had received assurances that people sent there under the yet to be finalised deal won't be abused.
"Malaysia has agreed to treat any asylum seekers transferred from Australia in line with their human rights," he said today.
Mr Bowen stressed asylum seekers transferred to Malaysia would be processed by the UN's refugee agency.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay, who is visiting Australia, yesterday claimed the Gillard Government risked breaching international laws with the proposed swap of 800 boat arrivals for 4000 refugees from Malaysia.
She also said there was a strong undercurrent of racism in Australia.
"I come from South Africa and lived under this, and am every way attuned to seeing racial discrimination," Ms Pillay, a former anti-apartheid campaigner and international criminal court judge, said.
"There is a racial discriminatory element here which I see as rather inhumane treatment of people, judged by their differences, racial, colour or religions," she said.
While Immigration Minister Chris Bowen insists the deal complies with the UN Refugee Convention, that document does not cover torture or cruel punishment.
Asked whether international laws would be observed to prevent canings, Mr Bowen's spokesman said negotiations were continuing.
Amnesty International's Dr Graham Thom toured three Malaysian detention centres last year, hearing how some detainees had died of leptospirosis, contracted through rat urine.
He photographed women and even a baby caged in squalid conditions at Lenggeng Immigration Depot, near Kuala Lumpur, and hundreds of men in one tennis court-sized enclosure.
"We went to three different centres and each was equally appalling," he said.
With The Daily Telegraph.
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