"Dangerous" refugees to Australia to be detained on Christmas Island: PM

CANBERRA, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Asylum seekers who are considered "dangerous" to Australia will not be allowed in the country's mainland but instead be detained in a high-security facility on Christmas Island, an offshore territory, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Wednesday.

Morrison on Wednesday visited Christmas Island, an Australian territory closer to Indonesia. He announced that 57 refugees currently held in indefinite offshore detention would not be allowed to enter the country's mainland on medical grounds.

Those 57, including men accused of murder, paedophilia and sympathising with terrorists in their home countries, will instead be sent to Christmas Island's North West Point detention centre, which was re-opened by the PM in February.

The decision to reopen the facility on Christmas Island was in response to the controversial medical evacuation bill passed by Parliament earlier in February.

The new laws, which were supported by the Opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP) and independent Members of Parliament (MPs), allow for the transfer of asylum seekers or refugees held in offshore detention for "medical or psychiatric treatment".