There is a total of 2,175 asylum seekers in both the Nauru and Manus detention centres.
This is according to the documentary Chasing Asylum.
This documentary was featured in the opening night of the Human Rights Film Festival.
The film festival is held yearly to highlight critical human rights issues in PNG and internationally.
Chasing Asylum exposes the real impact of Australia’s offshore detention policies.
It features never before seen footage from inside Australia’s offshore detention camps, revealing the personal impact of sending those in search of a safe home to languish in limbo.
An asylum seeker is a person who has left their home country as a political refugee and is seeking asylum in another.
Signing up to the 1951 Refugee Convention, Australia basically agreed to allow refugees into the country.
But a deal with PNG and Nauru meant these refugees were being sent to these Pacific Island countries instead.
According to the documentary, the Australian government spends A$1.2 billion running these centres. And A$500,000 per asylum.
Chasing Asylum interviews social workers, staff and volunteers at the centres who confirm witnessing stressful and traumatising environment and treatment.
These are men, women and children who’ve come from war stricken parts of the world like Pakistan and Afghanistan, only to be issued indefinite detention – no idea of when they will gain freedom.
Locked away behind high fences and heavy security, the documentary gives these refugees a voice.
To many, these centres are where they bury their dreams.