The Federal Government has confirmed that 10 asylum seekers on Christmas Island have sewn their lips together in protest against their detention.

The asylum seekers who have harmed themselves are part of a group of 160 who have been protesting peacefully at the detention centre.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said while their actions were distressing, it would not change the outcome of their refugee applications.

"If you are a genuine refugee you will be accepted. If your application is not regarded as genuine, it will be rejected," he said.

"That remains the situation. It is very important that all our detainees in detention centres realise that protests such as this do not change visa application outcomes."

The group has been offered medical assistance but refused the offer, Mr Bowen said.

He says the Government expects tension to increase among asylum seekers as more are refused recognition as refugees.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says the protest shows the Government's border protection policies are in chaos.

"What is disappointing about these events is that they were entirely foreseeable, given the rate of arrival of boats and the mounting stress on the detention network," he said.

"The Coalition has been warning about these types of outcomes for months and months."

For many months the Christmas Island detention centre has been full, as are the rest of Australia's detention centres.

The Federal Government recently announced it would build more centres, with around 5,000 people currently in detention.

In 2002, under the Howard government, about 70 asylum seekers at the now-defunct Woomera facility in remote South Australia sewed their lips together in protest against their detention.

Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition says the Government needs to process asylum claims faster or risk more protests and self-harm in detention centres.

"We have got people who have been in 18 months and they don't know whether they are going to get out next week, next month or if they are there for another six months," he said.

"It's that uncertainty which creates the despair inside the detention centres and leads to this kind of protest."

Pamela Kerr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre describes the Christmas Island facility as a hell hole and says detainees are living in sub-standard conditions.

She says the Government's asylum seeker policies are toxic.

"This takes us back to conditions in 2003. We have gone nowhere," she said.

"My concern is that with the people on Christmas Island, what they are doing is they are harming themselves as a means of protest.

"They are internalising. We know that this is a reaction to the suicide of the Iraqi man in Villawood."