Gillard defends her asylum seeker record

Former prime minister Julia Gillard has defended her government's asylum seeker policy as a humanitarian attempt to stop people drowning at sea.

"You don't quite know what it's like as prime minister to get the telephone call from your defence forces that tell you that they suspect an asylum seeker boat has gone down," Ms Gillard told Al Jazeera's UpFront program on Friday night.

She said she was forced to reopen the Manus Island and Nauru immigration centres to stop the criminal people smuggling trade.