Australia's Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd is under mounting pressure over his handling of a group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers on board an Australian customs ship.
The AMWU, in addition to the ACTU and the AWU, among others has spoken out about the mistreatment of the refugees.
National Secretary Dave Oliver said that the government had to ensure it treated refugees humanely.
"What we advocate is a humane solution, and having 78 refugees at sea for 10 days is not the way to go," he said.
"We've got a small number of asylum seekers arriving here by boat and hysteria is being whipped up and we don’t want the debate about this issue to return to what it was eight or nine years ago.
“That’s the wrong place to be.”
AMWU National President Julius Roe said the government should show compassion as well as put the issue in context.
“In 2008 only 6% of asylum seekers came by boat and more than 90% of them were found to be genuine deserving of asylum.”
“The government should pay closer attention to the much more important immigration problem of the half a million temporary visa holders who have limited work rights and the impact this has on the Australian labour market at a time when youth unemployment has climbed by more than 100,000.”
Mr Roe said the AMWU welcomed the steps taken so far by Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, to reduce exploitation of temporary workers but said he had not gone far enough to fully protect overseas temporary workers or young Australians looking for work.
“We need a process to ensure that temporary workers are only used in the case of a genuine skill-shortage where the job cannot be filled locally. Any worker from overseas should be paid market rates and conditions and employers should be able to demonstrate a good track record in employing and training Australians.”
“We also need to ensure that international students are just that - people we welcome to Australia to study – and not people exposed to sharks and middlemen offering a backdoor route to employment where they have no protection”.
The AMWU has released a guide to rights at work for migrant workers on 457 visas.