Australia is the only developed nation to detain all asylum seekers, including children. In its annual report for 2000, Amnesty International says that Australia's reputation has "reached a historic low after a year of great strides backwards".

At the beginning of June, demonstrations were held in capital cities across Australia, demanding the abolition of the policy of detaining asylum seekers in remote centres such as Curtin, Port Hedland and Woomera - this last near the site of an old missile testing range in the south Australian desert

Most recent arrivals have come from Iraq and Afghanistan, reports Kathy Marks in The Independent on Sunday. They make perilous voyages in leaky boats after paying a fortune to "people smugglers" in Indonesia. Many are traumatized and fearful; some have been tortured. When they reach Australia, they are locked up in isolated compounds surrounded by razor wire. There are few educational or recreational facilities. They are addressed not by name, but by identification number.

A compound for asylum seekers in Australia

Critics say that mandatory detention is a breach of Australia's obligations under international conventions on human rights and refugees. John Howard's government responds by calling for international refugee standards to be revised - downwards.

The conservative government's hardline stance on asylum seekers sits oddly with Australia's image as a champion of human rights and a haven for refugees. Since the second world war, this nation of 19 million people has given sanctuary to 650,000 refugees, absorbing dozens of different nationalities into an increasingly multicultural society.

But Mr Howard's government sings from a different hymn sheet. In September 2000, the UN working group on arbitrary detention had to cancel plans to investigate Australia's immigration detention regime, after the government failed to allow it to visit.