The UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) condemned Australia's treatment of asylum seekers in the country's off shore detention centres as effectively "cruel, inhuman and unlawful punishment", during the second day of Australia's review at before the UN panel in Geneva.

“Healthcare services are not denied to asylum seekers,” the Department of Immigration and Border Protection told the UNCAT on Tuesday.

“International Health and Medical Services are required to deliver healthcare that is the best available in the circumstances and broadly comparable with the health services within the Australian community," he said, adding that Papua New Guinea and Nauru were legally responsible.

On Monday however, the UNCAT's chairperson, Claudio Grossman rejected Australia's claim of lack of responsibility.

  “It is not convincing to claim Australia is not responsible for these people … Australia pays the bills,” he said.

Australia's bill which would allow the country to deport asylum seekers to places where they faced a significant risk of torture - the Migration Amendment Bill - faced particular criticism from the Committee.

"Human rights are given to human beings because they are born as human beings," the Committee said, condemning the proposed bill.

"If you introduce the notion of a risk which is 'more likely than not', you accept that some risk of torture is acceptable."

The UNCAT will deliver its report, following the review of Australia, on November 28.

See more on the Committee's proceedings here and here.

Australia has faced repeated criticism from NGOs as well as UN officials over its treatment of asylum seekers, many of whom are Tamil fleeing Sri Lanka. Earlier this year, 157 Tamil asylum seekers, including children where kept on a boat at sea for four weeks.

In September, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said Australia would have breached the UN refugee convention if it had deported over 150 asylum seekers detained at sea, to India, whilst making a submission at a High Court case examining the legality of Australia's asylum policies.

A report published by an Australian researcher, who went to Sri Lanka under the guise of being a tourist, detailed evidence that Tamil refugees deported from Australia faced torture and sexual violence on return.

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