The Australian government is spending over $1 billion a year to house 2,200 would-be asylum seekers in offshore detention centres in nearby Papua New Guinea and Nauru. Australia has for years been a target for smugglers transporting people from South Asia and the Middle East in usually unsafe boats. To try to deter the trafficking, the Australian authorities take asylum seekers to detention centres, which are paid for by the Canberra government, and where refugee applications are assessed. A parliamentary committee heard last week there have been 164 new asylum seekers this year compared with 20,711 in 2013.
