Refugee advocates have reacted angrily to the findings of an asylum seeker panel released today, claiming their recommendations were largely ignored.
And a leading human rights lawyer has cast doubt over the legality of the controversial push for refugee processing in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
Ramesh Fernandez, a refugee advocate who 10 years ago paid a people smuggler $5,000 for passage from Sri Lanka to Australia, doubts today's recommendations will reduce the flow of boats or improve the plight of those aboard them.
"It is a struggle of seeking freedom, and while you are in the middle of the ocean you are on your own and you never know whether you are going to be alive or not".
Pamela Curr, the campaign director at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, accuses the report's authors of ignoring recommendations from within the sector.
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She says the report fails to explore the reasons why people choose to make dangerous journeys, in favour of deterrence.
"People will still drown -- it's just that we won't see them drown. What this is about is making sure people drown elsewhere and don't discomfort us by doing it in front of us"
Lawyer David Manne, who led the successful High Court challenge which ended the Malaysia solution last year, holds serious doubts over the legality of some of the panel's recommendations for offshore processing in Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
"There is a serious absence of laws in place in their countries that protect refugees and the conditions in those countries, if the past is anything to go by, resulted in people being prolonged indefinitely and severely harmed with no guarentee of re-settlement in the future," he said.
The Uniting Church is similarly disappointed with recommendations to re-visit offshore processing.
"People in long-term detention on Nauru and Manus Island suffer enormous harm," Elenie Poulos from the Uniting Church said.
Ramesh Fernandez, who spent more than two years in immigration detention, agrees.
"Coming from a war-torn country, or facing persecution, it's going to add more trauma once you're locked up," he said.
"We don't want to do that again. We've done it in the past . We know how it harms people. Why would we do it again?"
The panel described the report as humanitarian and fair.
Audio: Send asylum seekers to Nauru and PNG - panel
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