Protesters demonstrate against Australia's refugee policy at the Parliament House in Canberra, capital of Australia, on Nov. 18, 2013. (Xinhua/Qian Jun)

GENEVA, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- United Nations aid agencies on Friday called on the Australian government to stop its "policy of deterrence by rescuing people at sea, mistreating them and abandoning them".

"We are concerned by events in the past week at Australia's offshore Regional Processing Center on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea where refugees and asylum seekers are holding out after the Australian government's decision to close the facility and pull out its support staff," said Rupert Colville, spokesperson of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

"We share the concerns of other UN agencies, including UNHCR, about what is an unfolding humanitarian emergency," he added.

The spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Babar Baloch said, "Australia's policy of deterrence by rescuing people at sea, mistreating them and abandoning them has become a notion of cruelty."

Both UNHCR and OHCHR said they are seriously concerned about the well-being of the 600 men who remain at the center due to both a lack of basic amenities as well as rising tensions with the surrounding local population.

"We call on the Australian government, as the party who interned the men in the first place, to immediately provide protection, food, water and other basic services which have been cut off since authorities shuttered the facility on October 31," Colville said.

According to UNHCR, the West Lorengau Haus, which was intended to be temporary accommodation for the 600 asylum seekers, was incomplete and uninhabitable as of Oct. 30.

While urging the governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea to fully respect the refugees' human rights, the UN agencies also repeated their "overall concerns" about Australia's offshore processing centers, which are described as "unsustainable, inhumane and contrary to its human rights obligations".