GENEVA (Reuters) - Elderly people in Britain are suffering ageist abuse in the wake of the vote to leave the European Union, an independent United Nations human rights expert said on Tuesday.

Turnout in the June 23 referendum was higher among older people and a majority of them voted in favor of leaving the EU. Turnout among young people, who tended to favor remaining in the EU, was much lower.

The referendum result has divided Britain and caused political chaos and economic turmoil.

The U.N. independent expert on the enjoyment of human rights by older persons, Rosa Kornfeld-Matte, deplored calls by some newspapers and social media outlets for restrictions on "gray" voters, saying curtailing people's rights on the grounds of age was contrary to international human rights law.

"One magazine even suggested that the pensioners’ right to vote should be taken away, just as their driver’s licenses are, after they reach a certain age,” the Chilean expert said in a statement.

Discrimination against older people has caused them to be marginalized, socially excluded and isolated, she said.

"It is also intimately linked to violence and abuse against them in public and private spheres as scapegoating and stereotyping nourish subconscious motives.”

(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Stephanie Nebehay and Janet Lawrence)