UN refugee chief condemns Australia’s offshore detention regime and slogans like ‘stop the boats’

On the first visit to Australia in more than a decade by a UN high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi says he was greatly encouraged by his talks with the Albanese government. Photograph: University of Melbourne

“Myopic” policies of deterrence, and slogans like “stop the boats” are ineffective in addressing the movement of asylum seekers across the world, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi has said, in a major speech urging greater cooperation between nations.

Speaking at the University of Melbourne’s Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, Grandi said: “Far too often, rich countries have a myopic approach to global forced displacement and population movements, focusing overwhelmingly on border controls.”