Britain should not copy Australia's "morally abominable" offshore asylum system under any circumstances with ideas such as sending migrants to Ascension Island, an Australian human rights lawyer says.
Sonya Sceats, who is also the chief executive of charity Freedom from Torture, said she was "totally horrified" by a series of leaks which suggested the UK government was considering ideas based on the approach Australia has taken towards asylum seekers.
These are said to include processing asylum seekers on Ascension Island - 6,430km from the UK - or turning disused ferries out at sea into processing centres.
A Financial Times report earlier this week suggested the UK's consideration of offshore processing reflected the influence of former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott, who was recently appointed a trade adviser to Britain.
A leaked document also suggested the government launched a secret consultation on building floating walls to block migrants from crossing the English Channel.
"This is Britain and we can do better than that," Ms Sceats told the PA news agency.
"I was, as an Australian, totally horrified to see us looking to Australia's morally abominable offshore asylum system as a template for this country."
Her comments came after the Home Office's most senior civil servant, permanent secretary Matthew Rycroft, repeatedly refused to deny claims the government had "seriously" considered suggestions on using Ascension Island when questioned by MPs.
Ms Sceats, who grew up in Australia and worked as a human rights lawyer specialising in asylum, said: "These ideas are just ludicrous and preposterous and deeply inhumane."
She said Australia's offshore system has led to deaths, child abuse scandals, was "preposterously expensive" and has "trashed Australia's reputation as a fair-go country".
"For Britain to be looking to these kinds of solutions is the wrong way forward," she said. "Britain mustn't go down this path under any circumstances and there are so many sensible solutions."
Australia's controversial use of offshore processing resumed in 2012 under the then-Labor government.
Current Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says the approach deters people smugglers from targeting vulnerable asylum seekers, and many of those who are sent to offshore detention are being resettled through third-country deals.
Ms Sceats has urged the UK government to consider cooperating with France so claims can be lodged before asylum seekers attempt to cross the Channel to the UK, and highlighted programs already in place, like the resettlement scheme.
But this has been suspended since March because of the coronavirus pandemic despite calls for it to start operating again.
