Migrant policies under fire:

The UN’s top human rights body took Australia to task Monday over hardline policies on asylum seekers, whom it has pushed back by the boatload and incarcerated in offshore camps.

Many of the more than 100 country representatives who took part in the UN Human Rights Council review of Australia’s rights record scolded the country over its tough immigration policies.

Asylum seekers trying to enter Australia by boat have since 2013 been turned back or sent to detention camps on Nauru or Papua New Guinea.

Australia’s 21-member delegation defended the practice, claiming it actually allowed the country to take in more people, pointing to the 12,000 refugees fleeing war in Syria and Iraq who are to be resettled in the country by the end of the year.

The country, which is vying for a seat on the Human Rights Council from 2018 to 2020, also insisted the policies had been introduced to stop human traffickers from putting migrants’ lives at risk. (AFP)