Federal Labor is questioning the effectiveness of Operation Sovereign Borders after an asylum-seeker boat made it to Christmas Island undetected.
The government has confirmed 28 asylum seekers reached the Australian territory on Monday, after their boat sank.
Fourteen of them remain at large on the southeastern side of the Island, some believed to be in heavy jungle area.
One of those detained was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Opposition immigration spokesman Richard Marles says the government has some explaining to do, especially in light of its military-style border protection operation.
"How is it with that discipline and focus that an asylum seeker (boat) has made it to Christmas Island without being detected?" he said on ABC radio on Friday.
Greens' immigration spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the fact more information was coming from locals than the government was an embarrassment.
"And reports from locals that the boat may have been drifting for some time raise questions about the capacity of search and rescue operations that have been thrown into chaos in recent weeks," Senator Hanson-Young said.
"The government's dangerous policies are not stopping the boats."
Details leak from local sources
Christmas Island's shire councillor Gordon Thomson says the asylum seekers were only discovered yesterday when several of them were spotted walking along a major road into town.
"The eight or nine who were taken away in the bus into detention had said that they had been on the beach since Monday, the boat had sunk and their friends were still down there," Mr Thomson told AAP.
Locals said the arrivals had survived on crabs and coconuts since landing onshore and had sheltered on secluded Dolly Beach.
"They weren't overly hungry or thirsty, even though they'd walked four, five, six kilometres from the remote Dolly Beach to the main road," Mr Thomson told AAP.
"They were in pretty good condition, so we expect that everybody else would be too."
Mr Thomson said none of the asylum seekers were unaccounted for after the boat sunk.
The government has remained tight-lipped over the incident, releasing a statement last night that an “incident of an unconfirmed nature” had occurred on the island and that “person’s who were involved in this incident are being questioned by on island agencies.”
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison is expected to make a statement about the incident in the Operation Sovereign Borders briefing later today.
