Is Canberra doing right by its refugees?

SYDNEY -- Nowhere was the poignancy of World Refugee Day on June 20 felt more acutely than in Australia. Here, the plight of thousands of refugees held in detention camps gnaws at the national conscience.

In this relatively rich, underpopulated country, people are demanding the Australian government do more to save refugees trying to come here for a better life. The clamor is fast becoming a national outcry. But still Canberra proceeds cautiously.

And still they come -- sometimes by air, helped by corrupt airport officials in Southeast Asia, but mostly smuggled across thousands of kilometers of shark-infested ocean in unseaworthy boats. They are landing on the barren West Australian coast every month, only to be picked up and locked in camps in the middle of the desert.