Injured people, who were rescued after their boat sank in East Java, stay at a temporary shelter in Trenggalek December 18, 2011.Reuters
Australia's lower house of Parliament passed a bill Wednesday approving offshore processing camps for asylum-seekers in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, according to the BBC.
Australia has seen increasing numbers of refugees from Indonesia seeking asylum. Many attempt to make it across the Timor Sea illegally, often with human smugglers, in boats that sink on the way. Australian officials told the BBC that the offshore processing will exist both as a deterrent against making "the perilous journey."
Often the boats are turned around, and the asylum seekers are held indefinitely in camps on Nauru and Mannus Island.
