Nearly one in four Qantas shareholders have voted in favour of a human rights resolution around ending involuntary transportation of immigration detainees, quadrupling last year’s support.

The resolution, submitted by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) on behalf of 100 shareholders, failed with 23.56% of the vote, but far exceeded the 6.4% a similar resolution garnered in 2018.

Qantas, which held its annual general meeting on Friday, is among a number of airlines worldwide under pressure to cease cooperation with government transportations of immigration detainees.

The department of home affairs has been repeatedly criticised over its policy of transferring detainees between facilities, often without warning, and away from family, support networks, and medical care.

Friday’s resolution called on Qantas to review its policies and processes around involuntary transportation and to disclose the result – and any identified human rights risks that pose a commercial threat – to shareholders.

A separate resolution, on which the review resolution was dependent, called for constitutional change and received a vote of 3.4%, less than in 2018.

Sign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon

The ACCR’s director of human rights, Dhakshayini Sooriyakumaran, said even though it failed, the vote for the resolution was the largest vote against a board on a human rights issue in Australian corporate history.

“Scrutiny by shareholders of Qantas’s role in Australia’s refugee policy is part of a global realignment of companies and investors that are funding immigration and prison infrastructure,” she said.

The ACCR believed the support of a proxy firm was behind the huge swing, and was likely influenced by the decision to remove a clause from 2018’s resolution that called for the company to cease involuntary transportations while the review was conducted.

Sooriyakumaran said the ACCR had met with Qantas repeatedly over the past 18 months, and the company had recently urged the centre to withdraw its resolution after making some changes to its due diligence policies.

Qantas’s chairman, Richard Goyder, said the vote was another “emphatic rejection” of ACCR resolutions related to asylum seekers by the company’s shareholders.

“I’d encourage ACCR to take up their cause with the federal government, which is the actual target of their campaign,” he said.

“I would also like to reiterate that the directors acknowledge the complexity of Australia’s immigration policy and the societal community interest in its broader implications.

“It remains our firm position that the government and courts are best placed to make decisions on the legal immigration status of individuals seeking to remain in Australia – not airlines.”

Last week Guardian Australia revealed the Australian Border Force had transported a seriously ill young man to Perth on a Qantas flight, away from arrangements to have him treated in Melbourne, and took almost a month to bring him back.

“The nature in which this transfer was undertaken is proof that Qantas may be complicit in human rights abuses of those seeking asylum in Australia,” said Jacob Thomas, human rights advocate from the Queen’s young leader program, who attended the AGM.

“We will not stop until Qantas ends its part in the deportation of those who have sought asylum and refuge. This is not what the spirit of Australia is about.”

The AGM also heard from the chief executive, Alan Joyce, who said the carrier was well placed despite falls in business and consumer confidence.

“There was a temporary spike in fuel prices. Trade wars are impacting freight demand,” Joyce said. “We are feeling the effects of all of that, as you’d expect.”

Qantas on Thursday outlined a series of expected financial hits related to the factors cited at the AGM.

Deteriorating global trade conditions have reduced freight demand and will cut full-year profit by between $25m and $30m, while currency movements are set to add $25m to non-fuel costs in the first half.

Profit for the six months to 31 December will also take a $25m hit from pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, with Qantas aiming to minimise any second-half impact with capacity reduction.

Nonetheless, Joyce said Qantas, which has reported more than $4.3bn in profits over the past five financial years, remained optimistic.

“Our fundamentals are sound,” he said.

Shareholders voted in favour of the three directors standing for re-election, including Todd Sampson, who committed to increasing his shareholding after reports of disquiet among some investors that the marketing expert and TV personality did not have sufficient personal exposure.