Thousands of people rallied around the country on Palm Sunday to protest against the federal government’s asylum-seeker policies.

Marches were planned for Adelaide, Armidale, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

Protesters voiced several concerns about the government’s policies, including the offshore processing regimes at Manus Island and Nauru, children being placed in detention and several attempts to reintroduce temporary protection visas by the immigration minister, Scott Morrison.

Between 1500 and 2000 people attended the Canberra rally; about 6000 in Melbourne and Sydney, and about 600 in Perth.

A Refugee Council of Australia representative, Phil Glendenning, told the crowd in Hyde Park, Sydney, that an Australian prime minister would one day be forced to offer a national apology to those kept in detention.



"Thirty, 20 years from now, a prime minister of this country will rise in our national parliament and offer an apology for the damage done to them in our name," he said.



"It's not preventing deaths at sea; it's about saying 'die somewhere else'," he said of the government's asylum-seeker policy.

A protester at the Melbourne rally, Mark Kavanagh, said: “I'm here because I believe policies that lock up children breach our commitment to the UN convention on the rights of the child.”

In Sydney, Jim Richardson said: “Mandatory detention here isn't justified beyond a short initial period; offshore is even worse. Refugees should be welcome.”

Religious groups, refugee rights’ groups and people from various political parties attended the various rallies.

In Perth, a Uniting Church spokesman said: "It is ethically unjustifiable for the Australian government to imprison one group of asylum seekers in dangerous circumstances to deter others [from trying to reach Australia].

"They [asylum seeker] are not a tool of deterrence for government policies. The Australian government has to ensure adequate safeguards are in place for asylum seekers at all times, including the rule of law."

At the Perth rally, the Labor senator for Western Australia, Sue Lines, said the government's asylum-seeker policies were "inhumane".

"There is a number of Labor politicians who are now speaking out. What we want to do within Labor is create a movement for change."

An asylum seeker who was granted a protection visa and who now lives in Perth said the rallies gave hope to asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru.

"The situation in detention centre right now, if it's not worse, is pretty much the same as it was 12 or 13 years ago when I was in detention," Reza Sadiki said.

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“Lots of people at #PalmSunday in Sydney concerned about #Kidsindetention So are we!” tweeted UNICEF Australia.

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“Church and community groups across the country have been organising rallies and prayer vigils to mark this important day,” the Greens senator, Sarah Hanson-Young, said, addressing the rally in Melbourne.

"Many Australians want our parliament to find a kinder, more compassionate refugee policy. It's time to stop playing politics with the lives of vulnerable people and to end the war against refugees, who are simply asking our nation for a helping hand,” she said.

"From Perth to Melbourne, and Adelaide to Brisbane, Australians are saying that the government's cruelty towards refugees must end.”

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It has been disclosed that early discussions are occurring to potentially allow Australia to resettle refugees in Cambodia.

Cambodia has a poor human rights’ record and is one of the poorest countries in the Asia-Pacific. Hanson-Young said the talks were aimed at “shipping human suffering around our region”.