UN Human Rights

Ms Bachelet spoke at a human rights conference in Sydney yesterday.

The commissioner said mandatory detention was a mainstay of Australia's migration and asylum system.

"The people it affects have largely committed no crime; many of them are in very vulnerable situations, and some are children, yet they are subjected to prolonged, indefinite and effectively unreviewable confinement," Ms Bachelet said.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein singled out Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, saying he used bigotry as a political weapon.

He said he and others, including US Republican Donald Trump and Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, used the same tactics as so-called Islamic State.

Mr Hussein was addressing a security conference in The Hague.

In an election manifesto published last month, Mr Wilders said that if elected he would close all mosques and ban the Koran and Muslim immigrants.