Australia: asylum seekers back in detention

Australian immigration authorities say they have returned several hundred asylum seekers to detention centres after a series of mass breakouts across the country.

Officials said the detainees, who broke out as a protest against conditions in the centres and delays in processing their applications, were persuaded to return without the use of force.

Most of those involved were from Afghanistan and Iraq.

The BBC's Sydney correspondent says that although pictures of angry asylum seekers have dismayed many Australians, deep concern about immigration means that all the main political parties support the use of the controversial detention centres.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service