Immigration department releases pictures showing refugees after they were told they would not be able to settle in Australia

Asylum seeker advocates have condemned the Australian government for releasing pictures of a group of Iranians apparently distraught at being told they will never be allowed to settle in Australia under new immigration rules.

The photographs and videos – which are blurred to preserve individuals' identities – show some of the 81 Iranian people whose boat was intercepted by Australian customs north of Christmas Island on Saturday morning, the minister for home affairs, Jason Clare, told Guardian Australia.

They include a photograph of a woman crying, with head in hands, captioned: "A female asylum seeker comes to terms with the fact she won't be settled in Australia."

Immigration minister Tony Burke said he made "no apologies" for the photographs on Monday evening, adding he was "determined to get the message out as quickly and as forcefully as possible that anyone who comes by boat now without a visa will not be settled in Australia.

"Getting this message out is critical to stopping people from drowning at sea and I make no apology for maximising that opportunity to get the message out," he said.

Pamela Curr, campaigns co-ordinator for the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, was disgusted by the news release. "It seems that the government and the [immigration] department are reading that the Australian people want them to act in a cruel and abusive way towards asylum seekers, and that they'll be greeted with acclaim for doing so," she told Guardian Australia.

After undergoing health checks at Christmas Island, the 81 passengers will now be transferred to Papua New Guinea under the new regional agreement announced by Kevin Rudd on Friday afternoon. They were apparently told of the new arrangement at Christmas Island's North West Point immigration detention centre.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship told Guardian Australia the department routinely put up photographs of asylum seeker arrivals, and the decision to release these pictures was not because they were the first group to be processed under the new government policy. The department confirmed the captions were accurate.

The news release was headlined: "81 Iranians get the new message: you will not settle in Australia."

In an accompanying video, Diac's acting regional manager, Steven Karras, said the message given to the asylum seekers that they would never be settled in Australia under the new arrangement was "quite clear" and had "probably sunk in a bit". "I think in fact over the coming days … they will start to contemplate very seriously whether in fact returning home is a better option," he said.

Diac confirmed under the new arrangement no assessments have been made of the asylum seekers' claims, so it is not known what situation they would be returning to.

Tony Burke said on Monday said under the new rules failed asylum seekers will face the choice of staying in indefinite detention in PNG or travelling back to a country where they have right of residence.

The new arrangement, signed by Rudd and PNG prime minister Peter O'Neill, stipulates that no asylum seekers who arrive by boat will have a chance of being settled in Australia. Instead they will be processed on Manus Island, and if found to be refugees, settled in PNG.

Disgusting posting pics of distressed to be sent to PNG like some trophy ASRC (@ASRC1) @DIACAustralia

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