The detention of seven families, including four children, on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island has been labelled "deeply disturbing" and "morally deplorable" by mental health experts and aid agencies.
The federal government has transferred an initial 19 people to Manus Island as part of its tough offshore processing regime announced in August.
Professor Louise Newman from the School of Psychology and Psychiatry at Melbourne's Monash University told SBS News children should not be detained.
“The first time around when we used these sorts of facilities for children and detained children for long periods of time, we know that children were damaged,” she said.
“In previous research we've found, particularly at the 12 month period, people do start to deteriorate.”
Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said earlier the asylum seekers arriving at Manus Island today consisted of seven families.
"The first transfer to Manus Island has now taken place - and will be the first of many - sending the clear message that people arriving by boat risk being sent to a regional processing centre in either Nauru or Papua New Guinea," he said.
Professor Newman also said that although the federal government had engaged child rights agency Save the Children to provide children's services at the site, "there were no announcements made about paediatric specialists for the health needs of these children."
"These children have experienced dislocation from their country; some of them have experienced quite traumatic events, so they're quite vulnerable children and we're putting them in a location where it's actually very difficult to provide the sort support and services that they need."
Amnesty International spokesman Andrew Beswick also slammed the move, calling it "morally deplorable" in a press release issued today.
“Detaining women and children, in temporary accommodation, on an island far flung from Australia's shores is morally deplorable and flies in the face of our international obligations," he said.
“Australia has the capacity to process vulnerable people on the mainland, in a timely fashion and not punish them for seeking a safer life."
The statement comes just a day after Amnesty International released a damning assessment of facilities at the Nauru offshore processing facility.
Scott Gilbert from Save the Children said that while the organisation does not support sending children to offshore or onshore immigration processing centres, its role on Manus Island would be to "speak out on behalf of children sent there by the Australian government, particularly if the child rights agency has concerns about their physical and mental wellbeing."
Gilbert said the agency would continue to call on the government for children not to be sent offshore.
Operations at the Manus Island centre will be overseen by both the Australian and PNG governments, with welfare services provided by the Salvation Army, health services by IHMS and operational support services by British security firm G4S, according to earlier reports.
