The United Nations chief, Ban Ki-moon, has personally called on Malcolm Turnbull to reconsider Australia’s policy on turning back asylum seeker boats during a meeting in Malaysia.

The UN secretary general also took the opportunity to raise concerns about conditions in Australia’s offshore detention centres on Nauru and Manus Island.

The meeting with the prime minister took place on the margins of the Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

Ban raised the issue of refugees and migrants in the Asia Pacific region.

“The secretary general expressed concern over the detention conditions in Australia’s offshore processing centres and encouraged the prime minister to reconsider Operation Sovereign Borders,” a summary of the meeting issued by the UN said.

Ban noted Australia’s “longstanding commitment to refugee resettlement” and “appealed to the prime minister to share responsibilities”.

The meeting also canvassed the conflict in Syria and Iraq, the prevention of violent extremism, and efforts to tackle climate change. The pair exchanged views on climate change negotiations before the meeting of world leaders in Paris next month, according to the statement, and Ban “encouraged Australia to lead efforts to ensure a low-carbon, climate-resilient future”.

Ban’s personal plea is not the first time the UN has urged the government to review its asylum seeker policies, but it carries added weight because it was made directly in face-to-face talks with the prime minister.

The UN refugee agency has previously raised concerns over the conditions on Nauru and Manus Island, where asylum seekers are sent while they wait for their refugee claims to be processed and for resettlement to be arranged.



People sent to Nauru have reported rape and sexual assaults, and an Iranian asylum seeker, Reza Barati, was killed during violent clashes on Manus Island in 2014.

The Coalition and Labor share the policy of not offering resettlement to people who try to reach Australia by boat. The government has been trying to negotiate resettlement in third countries, but only a handful of refugees have agreed to go to Cambodia under a deal reached with Australia.

Earlier this year, Labor decided to adopt part of the Coalition’s policy by giving itself the option of turning around vessels at sea. Turnbacks were a key plank of the militaristic operation adopted by Tony Abbott after the 2013 election.

The policy helped to slow the number of asylum seeker boats to reach Australia, but there are occasional arrivals. A vessel was intercepted close to Christmas Island on Friday.

Turnbull has continued the practice of secrecy around Operation Sovereign Borders, saying on Friday that the government would not disclose details about the reported boat arrival because “we do not comment on operational matters”.

On Monday, the government again refused to comment on the location of the boat, or the circumstances of its passengers and crew.

Shortly after ousting Abbott in September, Turnbull said the government was paying “close attention” to the issue of the people waiting on Nauru and Manus Island. But the government subsequently emphasised that its policies had not changed.

In October, Turnbull told Guardian Australia the government would do “everything in our power, everything we can to resettle them, but resettle them in a way that is not going to result in creating incentives for people smugglers to get back into business”.

Guardian Australia is seeking comment from Turnbull’s office on the UN secretary general’s comments.

Daniel Webb from the Human Rights Law Centre said Ban’s comments were a reflection that international bodies recognised the dangerous example Australia was setting globally on forced and irregular migration.

“If other countries adopted our punitive deterrence policies then the world’s refugees would have nowhere to go. We are setting a dangerous global precedent and the head of the UN is quite rightly calling for change.”

Webb said Australia was a wealthy, developed democracy with a strong history of refugee resettlement.

“The UN clearly sees we have the potential to be part of the solution but our current policies make us part of the problem.

“Instead of punishing those who arrive and turning back those seeking to come, we should work with the UN and countries in our region to ensure families who need protection can access it safely.”

Over the past three years, the number of people travelling by boat through the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea more than tripled to reach 63,000. In the first half of 2015, 31,000 people boarded boats in the region, a 34% increase on 2014’s record figure.

In May nearly 8,000 asylum seekers from Bangladesh and Myanmar were stranded on boats in the Andaman Sea after Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia refused to allow them to land.

The UN warned the ships risked becoming “floating coffins”, and passengers on board reported fights to the death over dwindling supplies.

The impasse was broken when the Philippines offered to take some of the refugees. Other countries then also agreed to allow asylum seekers to disembark, on condition they would be resettled in third countries within a year.

Months later, there has been no resettlement. While some migrants judged not to have protection claims have been repatriated, most remain in camps in the places they first disembarked, such as Indonesia’s Aceh province.