THE government is unapologetic for transferring 20 asylum seekers to the mainland before clearance for visas on Christmas Island.
The Opposition said the move last Friday was a desperate attempt to make space in the detention facilities, but the Immigration Minister, Chris Evans, insisted it had merely responded to families and children in need of specialist care.
Pregnant women, for example, were moved to the mainland to give birth, he said.
The explanation did little to appease the opposition immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison. ''The minister can cloak it any way he likes but they were moved because he didn't have enough beds and he can't stop the boats,'' Mr Morrison said.
''The government is now employing their alternative plan of moving people to the mainland. It totally undermines the architecture of our border protection regime.''
Senator Evans hit back, saying the Coalition had moved 70 people without visas to the mainland under the former prime minister John Howard.
As political sparring over asylum seekers continued, a Senate committee was told ballooning numbers were taking a heavy toll on the nation's domestic spy agency. Last year ASIO experienced a tenfold increase in security checks of ''illegal maritime arrivals''.
The head of ASIO, David Irvine, said the agency conducted 988 security assessments of asylum seekers from July to December, including four aboard the Oceanic Viking - and a fifth on Christmas Island - who were deemed security threats. In the previous 12 months, the agency did 207 checks; none were deemed threats.
A spokesman for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship said it asked ASIO to conduct assessments for all asylum seekers: ''There is an increase in security assessments because there has been an increase in boat arrivals.''