Protesters across Australia demand the closure of detention centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.

Thousands of people have marched across major Australian cities calling for an end to the country’s offshore detention of asylum seekers.

The government sends anyone who tries to enter the country by sea to camps on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island or on Nauru in the Pacific for processing.

Protesters took to the streets on Saturday to mark the fifth anniversary of the policy’s reintroduction, when in 2013 Canberra significantly toughened its stance, signing deals with the Pacific nations and declaring that anyone arriving by boat had “no chance” of being settled in Australia.

“The policy that was introduced in 2013, to expel people – the ‘Fortress Australia’ policy that they [the government] put in place – that has to go,” rally organiser Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition said at the protest in Sydney.

“So we fight to close the detention centres on Manus and Nauru, but we fight in that process to bring them here.”

Australia sends asylum seekers who arrive by boat to camps on Manus Island or Nauru [AFP]

Hundreds marched through Sydney chanting “Free, free the refugees”.

Banners read: “Five years too long, evacuate Manus and Nauru”. Joint rallies were held in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra and Perth.

Canberra says its policy deters people from embarking on treacherous sea journeys, but rights groups and the UN have slammed the country for turning its back on vulnerable people, as reports of abuse, suicide and despondency filter out of the camps.

“Any country that openly rejects compassion and instead tortures people who we know are innocent, in order to make them a deterrent … has somehow lost its soul,” said Father Dave Smith, who recently returned from a visit to the Manus camp.

An Iranian man died in a apparent suicide on Nauru in June, with his body arriving in Australia last week after what Rintoul said took much lobbying of a reluctant Australian government, which initially said the man would be buried in Nauru or repatriated to Iran.

Canberra says its policy deters people from embarking on treacherous sea journeys [AFP]

The deceased man’s mother, who requested his body be buried in a place the family could one day visit, remains on Nauru with her younger son. They were refused entry to Australia for the burial, Rintoul added.

This was the fifth death on Nauru since Australia’s offshore detention ramped up in July 2013, rights groups say, while seven have died on Manus during the same period.

Canberra has tried to resettle those recognised as refugees to third countries such as the US. More than 100 have been transferred to the US as part of a deal made between the two governments under the administration of former US President Barack Obama.

About 1,600 people are believed to be still on Nauru and Manus.