New Detention Plans for Asylum Seekers

Under the new hardline approach to asylum seekers, people who enter Australia by boat, illegally, will be sent to the Pacific Island of Nauru, Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, or Christmas Island for processing.

They will, then, be relocated to a third country, according to The Australian newspaper report.

The Uniting Church has attacked the new detention plans as an act of moral abandonment. And refugee advocates argue it will lead to the long term incarceration of children.

The tough new policy on asylum seekers threatens to rekindle the debate about the best possible way of dealing with the problem.