Terrified asylum seekers who spoke no English were shown how to operate orange lifeboats in preparation for being forced to return to India, their lawyers say.
The group of 157 Tamil asylum seekers has since been flown to Nauru for processing after spending almost four weeks on an Australian Customs vessel on the high seas.
Their lawyers said they were kept in three windowless rooms 22 hours a day, with fathers separated from their families.
Human Rights Law Centre executive director Hugh de Kretser said the asylum seekers were Sri Lankan Tamils, most of them Christian, who had fled to India to escape persecution.
He said some had spent just six months in India, where they were not allowed to work or send their children to school.
"The clients we spoke to were terrified at the prospect of being dumped in the ocean on lifeboats but were told they had to obey," Mr de Kretser told reporters on Monday.
He said the asylum seekers were only allowed to change their clothes 11 days after being brought onto the Customs vessel.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison did not reject Mr de Kretser's claims, but referred AAP to Mr Morrison's comments on Sunday.
Mr Morrison told ABC TV on Sunday he would not comment on operational matters.
Mr de Kretser said nine adults and two children, only one or two of whom spoke limited English, were separated from the rest and told they would operate three lifeboats.
He said they did not want to take responsibility for the lives of 150 other people in trying to find the Indian coast on the high seas.
"The officers told them it was an Australian government decision and they had to obey," Mr de Kretser said.
"It's not clear why the government eventually decided not to proceed with the lifeboat plan but the whole episode reveals the desperate measures they are prepared to use regardless of the human cost."
The group is on Nauru for processing and Mr de Kretser said he was "deeply concerned" about the lack of access the asylum seekers had to legal advice.
"The whole access to these clients has been extremely difficult," he said.
Mr de Kretser said a High Court case on the asylum seekers was uncharted legal territory and he was waiting to find out when it would proceed.
The asylum seekers set off from India on June 13 and their boat was intercepted off Christmas Island on June 29.
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