The Federal Government is spending $4.1 million to make a telemovie designed to deter asylum seekers from coming to Australia by boat.

Lateline has been told the multi-million dollar drama, commissioned by the Customs and Border Security Agency, is for broadcast in countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan where deteriorating security is contributing to the worst global refugee crisis in more than 60 years.

Sydney-based production house Put It Out There Pictures has been given the contract for the drama, which Lateline understands could include storylines featuring the Australian Navy and asylum seekers drowning at sea.

Scheduled to be broadcast later this year, it will carry strong messages that asylum seekers should not trust people smugglers but instead wait to be processed.

A spokesperson for the Immigration Department told Lateline that "television soap operas and telemovies are proven media to reach the target audience when seeking to deliver complex messages."

While the department did not directly address whether the telemovie would be branded to audiences as being fully funded by the Australian Government, "each broadcast will be accompanied by a major awareness campaign across television and social media," the spokesperson said.

TV producer says 'propaganda' films can improve lives

Trudi-Ann Tierney from Put It Out There Pictures said "the impact this film will have on a person's decision to attempt a journey by boat to Australia cannot be underestimated" because it could help "save people from detention, disappointment and even death".

Ms Tierney is an experienced TV producer who worked in Afghanistan for four years making TV soap operas as well as an anti-terrorist police show called Eagle Four which was largely funded by the US embassy in Kabul and which she described as "propaganda".

She also worked on Afghan programs backed by other embassies as well as UN bodies and aid agencies.

In her 2014 memoir Making Soapies in Kabul, Ms Tierney wrote that: "Ostensibly I was head of drama (for a local TV company); but in truth I was nothing more than a propaganda merchant".

"The official term for what I was facilitating was 'psychological operations,' better known as PSYOPS which basically equated to identifying target audiences and influencing their values and behaviour to suit the objectives of, in the case of Afghanistan, NATO and its allies," she said.

Ms Tierney said most of her work was "grey PSYOPS" meaning that the source of the propaganda is not acknowledged and can actually appear to originate from a non-hostile or indigenous source.

However despite early misgivings, she believed the messages were positive and designed to improve Afghan lives through promoting greater gender equality and anti-drug and anti-extremist behaviour.

Ms Tierney said the Government-funded asylum seeker movie "is about people, not politics".

She referred questions about the plot and funding transparency to the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.

TV drama unlikely to deter asylum seekers: Refugee Council

Refugee Council of Australia president Phil Glendenning said the proposed drama was unlikely to deter people fleeing the horrors of Islamic State and a resurgent Taliban.

"We know that more people are on the move out of countries like Afghanistan and Syria than there have been for well over 50 years," Mr Glendenning said.

"A TV show isn't going to stop people who are running from the Taliban."

He said the $4m should be spent supporting the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to provide asylum seekers with better protection and to speed up lengthy processing times so they are less likely to turn to people smugglers.

"I don't think the Government understands why people are on the move if they think a TV drama will be a deterrent," Mr Glendenning said.

"It may have good intentions but when people are up against the Taliban and Islamic State, it's not going to help them find protection and that's what our concern should be — how to protect people's lives."

Professor William Maley, an international expert on Afghanistan at the Australian National University, said deteriorating security, including increasing attacks on Hazara asylum seekers in Pakistan, meant that "a lot of people don't think they can wait for a year in a dangerous environment for bureaucracy to respond to them".

"This is why people smugglers are more attractive because they can get people moving within five days of making a down payment," he said.

The departmental spokesperson said the "telemovie will realistically portray the journeys of people … and the challenges they face" including the lies of people smugglers and Australia's detention policies.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said the movie was part of an intensive effort by the Federal Government to end the people smuggling trade.

"Operation Sovereign Borders has stopped the boats coming to Australia and in the process saved countless lives," Mr Dutton said.

"But Australia must remain vigilant."