The Abbott government's claim to have ''stopped the boats'' has unravelled, as 157 asylum seekers who have been held on the high seas for almost a month will be brought to the mainland on Saturday.
The backdown came after Immigration Minister Scott Morrison told Parliament this month that ''on every occasion that may present, we will apply all of the policies we have to ensure that no venture successfully reaches Australia''.
Mr Morrison, who has refused to acknowledge the existence of the boat for weeks, confirmed the asylum seekers would be transferred to the mainland, where they will be interviewed by Indian officials.
''Until this process undertaken by Indian consular officials has been completed, the persons will remain in Australia,'' he said.
It follows Mr Morrison's meeting in Delhi this week with India's Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj where they agreed to take back Indian nationals and would ''consider'' taking back the Sri Lankans who were on the boat, Mr Morrison said.
Drownings reach a grim milestone: Explore data on asylum seeker deaths at sea.
But human rights advocates and lawyers questioned why it had taken the Abbott government four weeks and an ongoing High Court challenge to bring the asylum seekers to the mainland.
"This recent development shows that stranding a boatload of people in the middle of the sea, in an effort to 'stop the boats', has achieved nothing," said Graeme McGregor, Amnesty International's refugee campaign co-ordinator.
Lawyer David Manne agreed, saying: ''This could and should have happened from day one.''
Lawyers working on the High Court challenge against the government's decision to detain the asylum seekers welcomed the news, but said it now casts doubt over whether core elements of the High Court challenge can proceed before the court.
Hugh de Kretser, the executive director of the Human Rights Law Centre, said the legal team was assessing the impact of these developments.
The case, which was due to continue on August 5, was to be the first comprehensive test of whether the government has the power to intercept boats on the high seas and whether the Australian government had the right to hold asylum seekers against their will and take them where it chooses.
Until now, Mr Morrison has failed to provide any information on the boat's passengers and their wellbeing.
Fairfax Media understands a SkyTraders Airbus A320 has been booked to transport the asylum seekers from Cocos Island to Curtin detention centre in Western Australia's north on Saturday. Curtin is widely considered to be one of the harshest detention centres on the Australian mainland due to its remote location.
''It will be extremely difficult for the asylum seekers to gain medical or legal help once they are in the centre,'' said Dr Caroline Fleay, senior lecturer at the centre for human rights education at Curtin University.
The Curtin detention centre has been earmarked by the government for closure next year.
Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said Mr Morrison was a ''spectacular failure by his own measure''.
Meanwhile, the government's now-monthly Operation Sovereign Borders update, which details the movement of ''illegal arrivals'' and successful people smuggling operations, has not been updated for a month and six days.
But Mr Morrison told reporters on Friday: ''In the last seven months there has not been a single successful people smuggling venture to Australia and this remains the case.''
