The Department of Immigration confirmed that the group of 14 adults and 12 children arrived on Nauru on Wednesday morning.

This is the first group to be transferred to Nauru since the Rudd government announced its new resettlement approach to asylum seekers in late July. Earlier this month transfers began to Manus Island. So far, more than 300 men have been sent to Papua New Guinea under the new plan.

Wednesday's plane also contains the first family group to be sent to Nauru for processing since Labor restarted offshore processing in 2012.

On Wednesday, Immigration Minister Tony Burke said the group sent to Nauru was made up of seven family groups. That included seven men, seven women, four girls and eight boys who ranged in age from 5 to 15 years, he said.

Mr Burke said there would be more family groups going to Nauru in the "coming days". He also said that "before long" unaccompanied minors would be sent to either Nauru or Manus Island.

"Whoever wants to test our resolve will find that we're serious about this," he said.

Mr Burke also said that in the coming weeks, an increasing number of people would return to their home countries as a result of Labor's new policy. He said one man had already left Christmas Island for Iran and two had left Manus Island for Iran.

"There will be more to report in coming days," he said.

Mr Burke said he did not expect that Nauru would grant asylum seekers citizenship - if found to be refugees - because the country was too small. But it could offer long-term settlement, he told reporters.

A DIAC spokeswoman said that the family groups would be kept in a separate facility to the single men who are already on the island for processing.

There were already about 480 asylum seekers on Nauru for processing under Labor's previous offshore processing scheme.

The Nauru transfer comes a day after a boat carrying more than 100 people capsized 120 nautical miles north of Christmas Island. Australian authorities led a rescue effort that saw 106 people saved but five people are feared drowned. The rescued asylum seekers have been taken to Christmas Island.

The search and rescue effort was called off on Tuesday after an ''extensive search of the area,'' a Customs spokeswoman said.

Since Sunday, three boats carrying about 400 people have arrived, in addition to the boat that capsized on Tuesday.

But on Tuesday evening, Immigration Minister Tony Burke said the government's resettlement policy was working, despite the recent surge.

''There is no doubt that it is having an impact,'' he told the ABC's Lateline program. ''Week on week there has been a trajectory downward [in the number of people arriving in Australia by boat].''

The deaths at sea also come as the federal government faces a High Court challenge to its resettlement plan, which it says would mean no asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat would be resettled here.

But Mr Burke said the legal terrain for that challenge was different to when the High Court struck down its plan to process refugees in Malaysia in 2011.

''After the Malaysia decision we changed the law for processing,'' he said on Monday. ''People have been processed under that new law.''

When asked when his resettlement policy would start to work, on Wednesday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it would take "many months" to have an effect - and that he had been upfront about this when he announced it.

"It is going to take time," he told reporters, also challenging anyone to come up with a better policy to stop people smugglers sending people to Australia.

Also on Wednesday, Coalition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison demanded the federal government release descriptions of five asylum seekers who escaped from a detention centre near Perth on Saturday.

Mr Burke said the breakout was unacceptable but there would be consequences for the provider and authorities were working to find the escapees and detain them again.

He also criticised Mr Morrison for trying to politicse the issue.

With James Robertson, AAP