Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has defended sending an Iranian boy orphaned by the Christmas Island shipwreck back to the island even though he intends to move him back to Sydney next week.
Nine-year-old Seena was one of 22 survivors flown from the island to Sydney this week to attend family funerals.
Mr Bowen came under intense pressure to let the boy stay in Sydney where he has family willing to care for him.
But Mr Bowen decided Seena should go all the way back to the island's detention centre even though he intends to release the boy into his Sydney family's care next week.
"The advice to me was that it would be better not to break him up from the other family members who've been looking after him on Christmas Island - his aunty, his cousins, etcetera - who he's bonded with over the last couple of months, but to keep them together and then to move them to the community," Mr Bowen told ABC Radio on Friday.
"The advice to me is that this is the best way forward."
Seena will be one of 11 survivors - including two other children - who will be released next week.
Bad weather forced the government charter plane taking Seena and the other asylum seekers back to Christmas Island to land in the Kimberley town of Derby overnight.
It was expected to continue its journey later on Friday.
Mr Bowen denied he had expedited Seena's case because of media pressure.
"If I cared about what talkback radio said, I wouldn't have brought him to Sydney in the first place," he said.
"I was castigated around the country for paying for these funerals, using taxpayers' money to pay for these funerals and bring them to Sydney.
"So frankly, I reject that completely."
Mr Bowen also denied the threat of litigation forced his hand.
The Australian Greens on Friday demanded the immediate release of all of the 1000-plus children in detention.
"If there was one example as to why the government should dump offshore processing this is it," Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young told Sky News.
As many as 50 people died when the asylum seeker vessel known as SIEV 221 crashed on rocks and broke apart off Christmas Island's Rocky Point in December last year.
Eight - including Seena's father - were buried in two separate funeral services on Tuesday.
