'PM can't spin boats away'

New figures on asylum seeker arrivals show Australia is bucking the global trend and the federal government needs to explain why, the opposition says.

Arrivals to Australia increased by 29 per cent during 2009, when 6200 claims were received, according to a report by the UN's refugee agency released on Tuesday.

It also found Australia's take was low by world standards, receiving less than two per cent of all applications, while the total was less than in 2000 and 2001.

The federal opposition seized on the figures on Wednesday as proof the government was wrong in blaming push factors for a surge in boat arrivals.

Australian arrivals went up by almost a third, while the rest of the world experienced no increase at all, opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison said in a statement. Australia and the UK shared seven of the top 10 source countries, "yet in 2009 the UK had a five per cent decline".

"The Rudd government has also made much of push factors from Sri Lanka, yet in 2009 there was only a four per cent increase globally in asylum applications from Sri Lankans," he said.

"Rudd cannot sustain his spin that boat arrivals in Australia are driven by global push factors ... he cannot spin the boats away."

Mr Morrison's attack comes amid heightened scrutiny of the government's refugee processing system.

Two recent boat arrivals carrying 79 passengers were thought to have pushed Christmas Island past its capacity of 2040, possibly forcing the government to process refugees on the mainland.

But a federal government spokesman told the ABC there was enough room for the recent arrivals because some of the 2008 presently in the centre were being granted visas and being transferred for other reasons.