The ACT Refugee Action Committee is highlighting the softer stance on refugees taken by the ACT Labor branch, as the federal Labor caucus debates its position.

The committee is also circulating a statement of principles, expected to be signed by prominent community leaders, that calls for a return to the policies of the Fraser Government.

"Canberra is much more on side on this issue than is the case generally," committee spokesman John Minns said.

“In fact there is a great depth of feeling in the community that what the government is doing and what Australia is doing to these people is inhumane, absurdly expensive and completely unnecessary."

“Our assessment is that inside the Labor Party, a huge majority of party members are actually opposed to the federal policy.

“The ACT branch of the Labor Party passed a policy last August which we would be very happy seeing implemented."

Several thousand people attended the Palm Sunday rally in Garema Place, part of nationwide demonstrations against current asylum seeker policies.

Unions ACT secretary Kim Sattler, who is critical of Coalition and ALP policies, said then the rally meant more people were saying "yes to refugees" to demonstrate Australia was a compassionate nation.

Dr Minns, from the ANU's School of Politics and International Relations, said the next step would be a protest meeting at the ANU on June 28.

It will be addressed by Julian Burnside QC, Professor William Maley from the ANU and the Greens' Sarah Hanson-Young.

“We’re trying to do something a little different, we don't want to just have a series of rallies, this is going to be a different way of expressing our objection to the current policy towards asylum seekers and refugees," Dr Minns said.

"In some ways it's like a live petition -- people actually there will be petitioning the government by their presence and by their vote, for this statement about asylum seekers and refugees.

"The statement will be delivered to parliament when it next sits and will be received by sympathetic Senators and MHRs."

The statement calls for the "humane and dignified treatment" of asylum seekers and refugees in accordance with Australia's international obligations.

"We stand for allowing people who arrive by boat seeking asylum in Australia to live and work in the community while their claims are being processed rather than being forcibly detained in Australia or sent overseas to Papua New Guinea, Nauru or other countries," it says.

The ACT Labor Party's website says the branch supports the release of asylum seekers into the community after initial health and security measures have been done and opposes the mandatory detention of asylum seekers for the duration of their processing.

Dr Minns said he believed the policy adopted by the Fraser government towards Indo-Chinese refugees was the correct approach.

"When you look back on it, the heavens didn't fall down on us as a result of implementing that reasonable and humane policy," he said.

"Not only didn’t the heavens fall but when we look back on it, these people are now a very important part of the Australian community.

“Both sides of politics, unfortunately I think, have tried to create an image of the asylum seeker as a threat to Australia, that what they are doing is illegal, that they are a threat to jobs perhaps and maybe even that they are terrorists.

"When you examine each of those claims, all of them are just patently false.

“If the government calls these people legal then we would challenge them to do things that they would normally do to illegal activity, that is, charge the people involved, bring them before a court, have them sentenced and serve a definable period of detention."