Australia's Aborigines have offered political asylum to immigrants who are protesting against their detention by the Australian government.
The treatment of the refugees has attracted worldwide condemnation after at least 44 inmates, including one child, had their lips sewn together as part of their protest.
Several detainees have tried to hang themselves with bed sheets - including a 16-year-old boy. Others have swallowed shampoo and painkillers.
The Aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra, originally set up to campaign for land rights for Australia's 300,000 Aborigines, described the detention centres for illegal immigrants in the Australian outback as concentration camps.
Mr Pat Eatock, one of the founders of the original aboriginal tent embassy in 1972, said: "We are shocked and horrified at the callous and inhumane treatment of refugees in Woomera, South Australia, and Curtin, Western Australia.
"We are also concerned about conditions facing refugees who have been farmed out to Nauru and other locations in the South Pacific at great cost to the Australian taxpayers".
Australian Prime Minister Mr John Howard has refused make concessions, saying Australia would keep its hardline policy of detaining all illegal immigrants. It would also continue to intercept boat people at sea and pay South Pacific islands to take them.