A small group of detainees escaped the Christmas Island Detention Centre on Saturday night, just hours after about 200 asylum seekers returned having previously broken out.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship and Serco are trying to encourage the group of less than 100 asylum seekers to return to the centre.
Tensions at the centre flared on Friday night when about 200 asylum seekers broke out of the main immigration detention facility and made their way to the airport on the other side of the island.
Hasan Chalawi, an asylum seeker in detention in Darwin, said he had been told the men destroyed doors fitted with electronic locks in the Aqua and Lilac sections of the centre.
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"Then (at) eight o'clock on Friday night, smashing (sic) fences surrounding the detainees and a large number of them (left) towards the airport," Mr Chalawi said.
He said several others went to the coast to try to be photographed by residents to highlight the "tragic situation of refugees in detention centres".
"After that, a large portion of them felt fatigued and hunger, returned to the detention centre in the hope that they would return again to the airport to sit after the weekend."
Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Sunday told reporters in Canberra the situation was well in hand and there was no risk of losing track of any of the asylum seekers.
"Christmas Island is just that: it's an island so there's nowhere to go other than other parts of the island," Ms Gillard said.
The government would investigate the incident to see if there had been any contractual breach by Serco and, if there had been, it would take appropriate action, she said.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the break-out was inevitable when there were thousands of people in detention. The only way to prevent further incidents was to have tougher border protection policies, he added.
"Where you've got thousands of people in immigration detention, there's the risk of a break-out because people, understandably enough, would prefer not to be in detention," Mr Abbott said in Sydney on Sunday.
"So, the best way to handle this is to stop the boats. The sooner we can stop the boats the better and that means significantly different, dramatically different policies from the government."
Mr Chalawi said the asylum seekers decided to break out because they had "lost the hope of obtaining a protection visa because the number of asylum seekers is increasing".
He said there were frustrations about delays in the processing of asylum claims, adding that nearly 1000 asylum seekers had been accepted as refugees but remain in detention.
