Almost 200 prominent doctors, lawyers, academics and refugee advocates have accused the federal government and both the Liberal and Labor parties of "wilfully and deliberately" pursuing harmful policies of detention for asylum seekers, manipulating public opinion and wasting public funds on offshore detention centres.

In an open letter to the Abbott government, the group known as J'Accuse have demanded that mandatory detention and the off-shore solution be dismantled, detention capped at 30 days and alternative solutions be adopted that are consistent with Australia's obligations under the Refugee Convention.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison: the government's asylum seeker policy is under fire. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

J'Accuse was named after the Dreyfus affair in 1898 when writer Emile Zola accused the French government of anti-Semitism and the unlawful jailing of a Jewish army officer for espionage.

The group includes Alastair Nicholson, former chief justice of the Family Court of Australia, a University of Melbourne law professor and the chairman of Children's Rights International; former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, QC; Emeritus Professor of Medicine at UNSW John Dywer AO, who was also founder of the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance; Eva Cox AO; and former Commonwealth Ombudsman Allan Asher.