At their recent Executive Committee meeting, members of the Conference of Leaders of Religious Institutes in NSW [CLRI(NSW)] expressed dismay at the policies of both major parties that have condemned asylum seekers, attempting to reach Australia by boat, to 
indefinite detention at Manus Island and Nauru. 

President of CLRI(NSW) Sr Laureen Dixon rsc said: “Many of our members have lived and worked in detention centres in Papua New Guinea and other places and know that the health, safety and welfare of asylum seekers are at grave risk in all offshore detention centres. The recent tragedy at the Manus Island detention centre in which one man died and many more suffered serious injuries has borne out that knowledge”.