A refugee pictured on the Department of Immigration and Citizenship website with the caption ''a female asylum seeker comes to terms with the fact she won't be settled in Australia''. Immigration Department acting regional manager Steven Karras said the group listened calmly to the message. "It was apparent to me that they did understand what this message meant," he said. "I'm sure they’re now thinking about whether it was wise to come in the first place. And I think in fact over the coming days … they will start to contemplate very seriously whether in fact returning home is a better option." The move to publish the photographs was quickly questioned on Twitter. Asylum seeker NGO, House of Welcome, called the photos ''creepy'' and ''upsetting''.

Protesters against the government's PNG plan for asylum seekers gather outside Balmain Town Hall, where Labor is holding a special caucus meeting. Credit:Cole Bennetts/Getty Images UnitingJustice national director Elenie Poulos described them as ''heartless and abusive''. Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the pictures were shameful. “Today’s vulgar display from the Department of Immigration ... truly is a move dredged up from the bottom of the barrel,” the Senator Hanson-Young said in a statement. “It is shameful that this government is exploiting people’s private despair for cheap political gain."

Photos about 'saving lives' Immigration Department spokesman Sandi Logan said that the department believed the images were "entirely appropriate". Mr Logan said the department had taken the necessary steps to protect the identity of the asylum seekers involved. "The opportunity to demonstrate graphically to people considering getting on the next boat is an absolutely vital opportunity for us," he told Fairfax Media. Mr Logan said that the department regularly documented transfers and made them public, as it thought it was important to be "transparent in the way that we operate".

Mr Logan also said the images helped with the "believability factor" - getting the message of Australia's changed policy out to people smugglers and facilitators, those considering getting on a boat and disapora communities. "This is about saving lives at sea," he said. The woman who is pictured with her head in her hands had been briefed within the previous hour about the transfer to PNG and was waiting for initial checks, Mr Logan said. It is not known if she was upset because of the PNG transfer or another reason. Boat found

Authorities found the missing asylum seeker vessel about 3.30pm on Monday, which had disappeared carrying 30 people on its way to Christmas Island on Monday morning. In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said a Customs Dash 8 aircraft located the vessel at 3.30pm, about 20 nautical miles north-west of Christmas Island. AMSA issued an alert to shipping vessels in the area at 10.24am, asking all ships within 100 nautical miles of Christmas Island to be on the lookout for the boat and to be prepared to offer assistance. An Australian Navy boat was helping the boat on Monday afternoon. Tough new stance

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was unapologetic on Monday about his government's new hardline approach to asylum boats coming to Australia, saying people smugglers were ''merchants in death''. As part of the new approach, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has published photographs on its website depicting upset asylum seekers being told they will not be settled in Australia. The Immigration Department has previously published photos on its website of Sri Lankan ''irregular maritime arrivals'' being returned to Colombo by plane, as well as the first asylum seekers to arrive on Manus Island once the processing centre was re-opened last November. The latest photos are part of the department of immigration's social media campaign in support of the government's tough new stance. Speaking after Labor's federal caucus meeting in Sydney on Monday, Mr Rudd said "the government is going to take a hard line on this".

He claimed the policy – in which Australia would send all asylum seekers arriving by boat to Papua New Guinea for processing and resettlement – was "eminently defensible in the international community". But he acknowledged he was expecting court challenges to the policy in Australia and, perhaps, in PNG. "This is going to take quite a while to roll out ... there'll be bumps in the road, we understand that." But, he said, "we make no apology for the decision we've taken". Blu Tack agreement

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said Mr Rudd was misleading the Australian people about his Papua New Guinea asylum seeker solution, "to the point of dishonesty". The government released its two-page agreement with PNG on Saturday, and Mr Abbott – who the ABC reported had read "every word" of the document – said the plan was "held together with Blu Tack and sticky tape". Despite Mr Rudd's assurances that all asylum seekers arriving in Australia would be sent to PNG, the agreement states that any boat people arriving in Australia "will be liable" for transfer to PNG. "It's not legally binding and it doesn't say what Mr Rudd says it says," Mr Abbott told reporters in Melbourne on Monday. "It doesn't say that everyone who comes to Australia illegally by boat will go to PNG and it doesn't say that no one who goes to PNG will ever come to Australia.

"Mr Rudd is being misleading to the point of dishonesty." But Immigration Minister Tony Burke said the policy is already having an effect, saying on Monday morning that reports from people smugglers and asylum seekers indicate the message is already getting through. "Does this unilaterally mean we can give a date on when boats stop? No," he told ABC radio on Monday. "But certainly, be in no doubt the product that people smugglers are selling is no longer available." Loading

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