It accuses Australian officials of keeping asylum seekers – including a pregnant woman,two children and an infant – in cells for about a week on a Border Force ship after being told they could bathe there. It says some were denied medical care or access to their own medication.
The report also contradicts claims made by the Operation Sovereign Border taskforce that the May 2015 operation was intended to save lives following a distress call.
"The crew and asylum seekers – interviewed separately – consistently told Amnesty International that the boat was not in distress at the time of either interception on 17 or 22 May."
Instead,Amnesty International says Border Force and Navy officials put dozens of lives at risk by forcing asylum seekers onto poorly equipped vessels,one of which ran out of fuel necessitating a dangerous mid-sea transfer.
"In the circumstances described by the crew and asylum seekers,it. is remarkable that no lives were lost and no one was injured."
Amnesty International also calls for an investigation into a second possible cash payment on July 25,when Australia intercepted a boat with 25 asylum seekers from Bangladesh,Myanmar and Pakistan.
Passengers told the human rights organisation that when they were put on a new boat on August 1,crew had two new bags they had not seen before.
"When the passengers became suspicious and threatened to open the bags the Australians repeatedly told them not to."
However an Indonesian police officer told Fairfax Media that crew members and asylum seekers on the second boat had made no mention of bribes or payments made by Australian officials.
"When we intercepted the boat,we didn't find any money,just a GPS system given by Australian officials,"Ibrahim,the people smuggler unit chief for East Nusa Tenggara,told Fairfax Media.
"Where would the crew hide the money? We intercepted them while they were still on the water."
Amnesty International has taken out full page advertisements in Thursday'sSydney Morning Herald andThe Age,calling on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to launch a Royal Commission into the people smuggler payments.
A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Peter Dutton denied all of the claims being made in the Amnesty report. In response to detailed written questions from Fairfax Media,the spokeswoman said that the Operation Sovereign Borders regime was"conducted consistent with Australian domestic law and Australia's obligations under international law".
"People on intercepted vessels are held lawfully in secure,safe,humane,and appropriate conditions by the personnel of the Australian Border Force and the Australian Defence Force,"she said.
"To suggest otherwise,as Amnesty has done,is to cast a slur on the men and women of the ABF and ADF.
"The government will always act in the best interests of the Australian people."
She did not address direct questions about whether payments had been made by Australian officials.
In an exclusive interview with Fairfax Media this month,Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said the evidence of the people smuggling payments was"very obvious".
"But it seems there is very minimum information that the Australian authorities could share with Indonesia,"she says."We expressed our concern obviously at that time. I think the message has been conveyed clearly to Australia."
With Amilia Rosa