(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
Unconfirmed reports from the Christmas Island immigration detention centre say some asylum seekers have sewn their lips together in a protest over conditions.
The reports say tensions are building in the centre, with many detainees on a hunger strike.
Alice Mulheron reports.
In line with its secretive approach to asylum seeker issues, the federal government is not releasing details of what's happening on Christmas Island.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the situation is being dealt with by the private operator of the detention centre, Serco.
"This particular incident is under control. It's being managed by the service provider at the time. I get regular updates on what is happening there. It is a diffficult environment when you've had people since July who have been at Christmas Island for some time."
Asylum seekers are protesting poor conditions and the separation of families in the Christmas Island centre.
The government says Christmas Island is used mainly for temporary health and security checks to be carried out.
After that, asylum seekers are meant to be transferred to the detention centres on Nauru or Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.
But many have been held on Christmas Island for months.
Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says they don't want to be sent to Nauru or Manus.
"These people are in a terrible situation. They're being told that they'll never get a visa, that they'll be sent to Nauru or Manus and they know they're never going to get a place there. Neither Nauru or Manus Papua New Guinea want them and have said so clearly to the Australian government that they're not going to settle them so they're in a limbo situation."
Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young says the reports coming out of Christmas Island are distressing.
She's heard claims of asylum seekers planning to sew their eyelids together.
"The idea of sewing their eyelids together is just shatteringly horrible. But we have a toxic culture out there on Christmas Island and in Australia's detention centres because desperate people who have fled war and persecution came to Australia to ask for help and we have the Australian government callously locking them up and throwing away the key."
The Immigration Minister has defended the government's policy of not commenting on self harm within detention centres.
He says it would send the wrong message.
"We don't want to encourage other people to do things to themselves. And we certainly don't want to establish a precedent whereby in undertaking such behaviour they think it will somehow give publicisation to their case or indeed may change the outcomes of their case. So I want to be really clear. When people engage in protest activity it does not change what will happen with their case or where they will go. They will be transferred to Nauru and Manus Island. That's what's going to happen. That's where their claims will be assessed."
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