The government has been accused of "abuse" by the human rights group Amnesty International following its implementation of new laws on asylum seekers.

In its annual report Amnesty said the Immigration and Asylum Act had been "severely detrimental to refugee rights".

A political row has blown up over asylum seekers in recent months with the Conservatives urging the government to take a tougher line, while the Liberal Democrats protested at the tone taken by the two main parties and referred them both to the Commission for Racial Equality.

The UK Director of Amnesty, Kate Allen, also criticised the climate created by the political debate over asylum seekers in the UK.

She said: "The approach to them by the UK is a debate about whether to lock them up or not. Now we do need to change that, and we do need a lead from politicians on this."

Ms Allen added politicians should spend "more time talking about the situations people left from" rather than concentrating on detaining them as a matter of course.

Torture on the rise

Amnesty's report also suggested that the number of countries torturing people had risen by 6% last year.

Last year the group received reports from 132 countries where torture was used on prisoners held by police or security forces compared to 125 the year before.

In Europe, the human rights campaigners noted that the most common abuses were often racially motivated. Torture and ill-treatment of prisoners by police was also highlighted.

Deaths in custody

The report underlined three deaths in police custody in the UK - Roger Sylvester in January, Sarah Thomas in August and Barry Stanley in November - as having "disputed circumstances".

The organisation said it was "concerned" that it again had to include UK in its annual report.

The murder of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson in Northern Ireland after a string of death threats from loyalist terrorists was one case cited by the report.

Researcher Halya Gowan said: "It is a fact that Rosemary Nelson was killed after the UN issued a serious report about the abuse of defence lawyers in Northern Ireland and called for their protection, including protection for her."

Racist murders

Police investigations into the racist murders of Michael Menson and Ricky Reel caused "extreme concern", said Ms Gowan.

"Police were found to fail in their primary duty which is to assess evidence and find those responsible for the murders," she said.

Turning to the global survey the report said the major states responsible for torture included Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Turkey and China.

Politically-motivated torture resurfaced in Zimbabwe for the first time this year since the late 1980s, Amnesty said.