Three women were arrested outside the immigration office in Sydney's Chinatown on Friday.
The women were part of a group of activists protesting against Australia for forbidding refugees and asylum seekers on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and Nauru in Micronesia from entering the country.
As police carried one woman from the scene, protesters chanted: "[Immigration Minister] Peter Dutton, no more lies, you don't care if people die."
A spokesperson for the NSW Police told SBS News they were called to the Department of Immigration and Border Security office on Lee Street in Haymarket on Friday afternoon.
When they arrived they found three women had chained themselves together.
The women were arrested after they failed to comply with a move-along direction.
They were taken to Day Street Police Station in Sydney's CBD and are assisting with enquiries.
Daniel Cotton, a spokesperson of the protest, said in a statement: "The situation on Manus island has reached crisis point.
The prostestors chanted 'Bring them here' at the immigration office in Sydney. Source: Supplied
"Water, food and power are being cut off to hundreds of people. Looming over the camps is the threat of a take-over by PNG paramilitary groups infamous for violence and human rights abuses.
"There is only one solution to this crisis: refugees must be brought to safety in Australia immediately."
Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, who joined the Sydney protest, said "enough is enough".
"We cannot continue to stand by as these atrocious human rights abuses are perpetrated in our name," she said.
"The Australian Government has a duty to ensure the safety and human rights of the people it has kept locked up on Manus Island for up to four years now."
Protests took place in Sydney and Canberra on Friday to demand the immediate evacuation of 600 asylum seekers and refugees on Manus Island.
An image of the protesters inside the Sydney immigration office. Source: Supplied
Australia and PNG on Tuesday closed the Manus Island facility where asylum seekers and refugees had been detained.
Its closure had been anticipated after PNG ruled the compound was illegal in April last year.
Asylum seekers and refugees are refusing to leave the facility, saying they have nowhere else to go and Manus Island locals do not want them to join the community.
The Australian Government announced this week that following the closure of the detention centre, refugees could settle in PNG and those of the 600 men there who were not refugees should relocate to another facility named Hillside Haus.
Mr Dutton said they could also apply for resettlement in the US, seek to move to Australia’s other offshore detention facility on Nauru or volunteer to return to their home countries - which Australia and PNG said they would facilitate.
Refugee agency UNHCR has again called on "Australia to stop a humanitarian emergency unfolding on Manus", describing services on the island as "inadequate".
The protesters want asylum seekers and refugees at Australia's offshore processing centres to be sent to Australia. Source: Supplied
PNG's former prime minister Sir Michael Somare called for the men to be sent to Australia.
"We should have a better understanding between two prime ministers of Australia and PNG and repatriate these people," Sir Michael told SBS News after releasing a statement earlier.
"[The] best thing is for Australia and PNG to agree to make re-agreement again for people to be shipped to Australia.
"Don't treat them as animals, they're not animals, they're human beings."
New Zealand's newly appointed Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern repeated her offer on Thursday to resettle 150 refugees.
"New Zealand's offer comes from within our existing refugee quota and applies to refugees on both Manus Island and Nauru," she said in a statement on Friday.
