62 Azadeh Dastyari and Asher Hirsch matter of substance, caused and effectively controlled by the Commonwealth parties.”35 The detention of asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea and Nauru has received a high degree of criticism from international organizations, including Human Rights Watch, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Amnesty International. There have been several deaths of asylum seekers in the detention facility in Papua New Guinea, including the murder of a young Iranian man by guards and the deaths of two men, which a number of leading health professionals believe could have been prevented with better medical care.36 The detention facility in Nauru has not been free from tragedy, either. Omid Masoumali, a young Iranian national seeking Australia’s protection died after a 22-hour delay to fly him to Australia for burn treatment. Masoumali self-immolated following a UN visit to Nauru in protest against the conditions and continuing detention on the island.37 Centers in both Papua New Guinea and Nauru have also been plagued by allegations of rape and other sexual assaults, including of children. Independent bodies have also observed overcrowding and poor conditions of detention,38 a lack of fairness and transparency in refugee status determinations,39 and repeated concerns regarding detainees’ lack of safety.40 The UNHCR released a very strong condemnation of conditions for detainees on Australia’s extraterritorial detention facilities, stating: 35 Plaintiff M68/2015 v. Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, 257 CLR 42 (HCA 2016). B. Doherty, “Border Force Doctor Knew of Manus Asylum Seeker’s Deteriorating Health before Death,” The Guardian, August 9, 2017, www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/ 09/border-force-doctor-knew-of-manus-asylum-seekers-deteriorating-health-before-death; G. Thompson et al., “Asylum Seeker’s Death Blamed on ‘Pathetic’ Manus Island Blunder,” ABC News, April 25, 2016, www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-25/manus-island-blunder-blamedfor-asylum-seeker-death/7355858. 37 Amnesty International, Australia: Island of Despair: Australia’s “Processing” of Refugees on Nauru (October 2016), p. 19. 38 Amnesty International, This Is Breaking People: Human Rights Violations at Australia’s Asylum Seeker Processing Centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (December 2013), www .refworld.org/pdfid/52aac41cb.pdf; Amnesty International, This Is Still Breaking People: Update on Human Rights Violations at Australia’s Asylum Seeker Processing Centre on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (May 2014), https://static.amnesty.org.au/wp-content/ uploads/2016/09/This_is_still_breaking_people_update_from_Manus_Island.pdf; Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee et al., Incident at the Manus Island Detention Centre from 16 February to 18 February 2014 (Parliament of Australia, 2014), www .aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/ Manus_Island/Report. 39 Human Rights Watch, World Report 2015: Papua New Guinea (New York: Human Rights Watch, 2015), www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/country-chapters/papua-new-guinea. 40 Amnesty International, This Is Breaking People; Amnesty International, This Is Still Breaking People; Human Rights Watch, World Report 2015; Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee et al., Incident at the Manus Island Detention Centre from 16 February to 18 February 2014. 36 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108914994 Published online by Cambridge University Press