Australia was criticized on Monday at the United Nations for its offshore processing of asylum claims, detention of child migrants and reports it had sent back legitimate refugees.

Sterilizations of the disabled and discrimination against indigenous people were other concerns raised during the U.N. Human Rights Council examination of Australia's record, part of a regular review of each U.N. member held every four years.

Successive Australian governments have vowed to stop asylum seekers from reaching the mainland, sending those intercepted on unsafe boats to camps on Christmas Island, and more recently Manus island in Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the South Pacific.