Australia will send the first group of asylum seekers to an offshore processing centre in Nauru this week, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says.
Mr Bowen has formally signed a document authorising the move and will table it in parliament later in the day.

Over the weekend, Prime Minister Julia Gillard also sealed a deal with Papua New Guinea's government to conduct offshore processing on Manus Island.
Lawmakers approved offshore processing camps for asylum seekers last month.

The moves, whereby asylum seekers arriving by boat are relocated to offshore centres while their claims are assessed, are aimed at deterring people from making the dangerous journey to Australia by boat.

In recent months the number of arrivals has increased and several boats have either sunk or got into trouble.
Mr Bowen said he had "signed the legislative instrument designating the Republic of Nauru as a regional processing country".

The Australian and Nauru governments had been working together for ''a transfer to occur in the latter part of this week", he told a press conference in Canberra.

He did not specify the numbers or specific group of asylum seekers who would be sent to the Pacific island, but said that anyone who had arrived after 13 August could be transferred. (BBC)



First transfer of IMAs from Christmas Island to Nauru
Raw footage of the first group of asylum seekers to be transferred from Christmas Island to Nauru, as part of the new offshore processing arrangements.