Young children and their families held in asylum seeker detention in Australia will be released on bridging visas, but the policy will not extend to children being held on Nauru and Christmas Island.

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The Government has announced new bridging visa arrangements to allow children under 10 held in residential facilities to be released into the community.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the policy will apply to 150 children in detention out of the "500-odd" currently in those facilities.

"This is the dividend of stopping the boats," he said.

New arrangements include: assistance for families to stay in suitable transitional accommodation

assistance for families to stay in suitable transitional accommodation case worker support

case worker support support for children to go to school

support for children to go to school provision of emergency relief support payments

provision of emergency relief support payments access to complex health support

access to complex health support access to orientation programs

access to orientation programs access to English language courses

Mr Morrison said 1,547 children were in community detention at the end of July, although it is not clear how many of those would be affected.

Mr Morrison says the visas will be decided on a "case by case" basis.

"We are confident we can move a large number of them off community detention into the bridging visa program," he said.

Immigration department statistics state 404 children were in "alternative places of detention" in Australia as at the end of June.

Mr Morrison says the children and their families will be released on bridging visas before the end of the year.

"We still have some consultations we have to do with service providers," he told ABC's AM program.

"Because what this announcement does is ensures there's additional support provided to children under the age of 10 who are released with their families on bridging visas."

Previously, many of the children and their families had been held in community detention with no visa, no right to work and with requirements to regularly report to the immigration department.

Morrison faces calls to release all children from detention

Australian Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs has urged the Government to change its policy to not give work rights to adult family members.

In a statement, Professor Triggs says "children may be moved into difficult financial circumstances" if the policy does not change.

She has also pointed to the hundreds of children in offshore detention - 148 on Christmas Island and 193 children on Nauru - who will not be released.

Last month, Professor Triggs visited the Christmas Island facility and reported an unprecedented rate of self-harm among children there. She said the "desperation is palpable".

But 148 children on Christmas Island and 193 children on Nauru will not be released.

Mr Morrison says the policy applies to children who were in detention before July 19 last year - the date that the former Rudd Labor government announced new boat arrivals would all be sent offshore.

He says releasing children from offshore detention would revive the people smuggling business to Australia.

"I'm not going to put in place policies that [are] going to to encourage children to get on boats, because when children get on boats, they die on boats, and I don't think that's a very good humanitarian outcome," he said.

Greens leader Christine Milne says children should also be released from offshore facilities.

"There's just no excuse for locking up children, and to say we're going to lock up children and be cruel to them as a deterrent to others is an unacceptable way to behave," she told ABC News 24.

"We have got to look after children."

Opposition Immigration spokesman Richard Marles says the announcement is "spin" and Mr Morrison is claiming credit for Labor's expansion of the community detention program.

He says the Government now has to detail its plans to move children and families out of detention.

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"Where is the new capacity? What are the new resources? And what is the advice which says that this decision should only apply to kids who are under 10?," Mr Marles said.

"The truth is that today's announcements raises many more questions."

But Mr Morrison has emphasised the Government's "success" in reducing the number of children in detention since the election.

He says the number of children in detention has dropped by 516 to 876, including those being held at Nauru.

He says the number of children on Christmas Island has declined from 425 to 148 at the end of last month.

Mr Morrison says the measure will save taxpayers more than $50 million over the forward estimates.

Official urged troubled Syrian asylum seekers to go home

Meanwhile it has been revealed that Immigration officials on Manus Island urged Syrian asylum seekers who were being treated for severe mental health issues to return home - telling them they would not be settled in Australia or a third country.

Syria is currently embroiled in a civil conflict that the Department of Foreign Affairs has described as an "extremely dangerous security situation, highlighted by ongoing military conflict, kidnappings and terrorist attacks".

The discussion is revealed in an email exchange in January between several senior Immigration Department staff, obtained by the Guardian Australia under Freedom of Information laws.

An official on Manus Island told colleagues in Australia about a meeting with three Syrian "transferees" currently on the Psychological Support Program (PSP) for asylum seekers at risk of self-harm.

"I did say that if they chose to return home, the department would work to get them home safely, with no guarantee of any time frames," the email states.

"The transferees were visibly upset and quite anxious, they were quite adamant that I would be sending them home to their death."

It explained a fourth Syrian asylum seeker had been at another similar meeting and that all of them "wanted to know what route they would take because most pathways are not safe".

A response from an official in Sydney said the "only option in terms of routing will have them flying into Syria from Jordan".

Earlier in the email chain, a manager from the Offshore Returns and Resettlement Branch had discussed how to handle the discussions with the asylum seekers, asking "are we in 'ultimatum' territory?".

Another official responded that: "At risk of being blunt, its [sic] Manus and wait until whenever the RSD process has been finalised or return to Syria".

The correspondence ends with a request for a teleconference because, as one official says, "a discussion is in order".

It is not known what has happened to the Syrian asylum seekers involved.

But in March, an email from the department's NSW Travel Unit to the Returns and Removals Strategy and Support Section asks for advice about a "voluntary Syrian removal" in early April.

"Escorts and RLOs [Removals Liaison Officers] will be accompanying detainees to Syria via Abu Dhabi and Amman," the email explains.