Crowds holding candles, carrying banners and waving placards have gathered in vigils around Australia to call for an end to the offshore detention of refugees and asylum seekers, marking four years since the policy began.
A crowd of about 200 people gathered in Sydney's Hyde Park on Wednesday night calling for an evacuation of all offshore detention camps in one of more than 50 vigils around Australia organised by activist group GetUp.
"There are humane alternatives, you know what, the only thing that is missing is political will," Amnesty International campaigner Ming Yu Hah told the crowd.
For those who attended it was also a chance to raise awareness of the children who may have spent all their life in detention, Grandmothers Against Detention of Refugee Children strategy group member Wendy Power told AAP.
"These children deserve a future. They deserve all the services that our grandchildren have," Ms Power, a grandmother of four, said.
In 2013, former prime minister Kevin Rudd banned refugees who arrived by boat from being resettled in Australia, striking deals with the Papua New Guinea and Nauru governments to resettle refugees there.
The Manus Island centre in PNG is to close in late 2017, with plans to resettle people found to be genuine refugees under an agreement with the United States or in PNG itself. Others will be returned to their homelands.
Australia intends to keep the Nauru centre open.
