“Asylum seekers who come here by boat without a visa will never be settled in Australia,” Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced in 2013. Those seeking asylum have been transported to Manus Island in Papua New Guinea (map) or to the Pacific island nation of Nauru.

“The Australian policy of indefinite detention of asylum seekers and refugees (or anybody else not convicted by the courts) sounds totally unjustifiable and unacceptable to us,” the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands said in a statement.