Asylum seekers aiming for Australia try to prevent transfer to tiny Nauru

A protester from the Refugee Action Coalition holds a placard during a demonstration outside the offices of the Australian Government Department of Immigration and Border Protection in Sydney, Australia, April 29, 2016. REUTERS/David Gray

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Lawyers for more than 700 asylum seekers seeking a new life in Australia but held instead in Papua New Guinea filed an injunction on Wednesday aiming to halt their transfer to a much-criticised detention centre on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru.

Under Australia's hard-line immigration policy, asylum seekers intercepted trying to reach the country by boat after paying people smugglers are sent for processing to a camp in Manus Island in Papua New Guinea or to Nauru.