By Jessica Wright
CHARTERED flights to move asylum seekers out of the overcrowded Christmas Island detention centre and on to the mainland have cost taxpayers more than $3 million over three months.
Documents obtained by The Sun-Herald also show the operating costs for the Australian Federal Police on Christmas Island from April to July were $4.7 million.
A boat carrying asylum seekers that became stranded on Christmas Island.Credit: Channel Nine
As the Gillard government's proposed ''Malaysia solution'' and refugee swap deal inches closer to official ratification, with reports a draft agreement has been reached, more than 400 suspected asylum seekers are awaiting their fate on the small island, placing a strain on the already severely stretched infrastructure.
Contrary to initial indications by the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, a source confirmed that the asylum seekers who had arrived after the deal was first announced would not be sent to Malaysia.
It is understood that Labor still held hopes to deport the 400 to another centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, by reopening the site used under the Howard government's Pacific Solution.
Meanwhile, health costs in the detention network for the 11 months to the end of May exceeded $95 million, figures obtained from Senate Estimates show.
This figure has grown from about $10 million at the end of the Coalition's last term in government in 2007. However, the number of asylum seeker boats arriving on Australian shores since then has increased dramatically after the Labor government scrapped temporary protection visas.
To make way for the latest arrivals, charter flights have been employed to ferry asylum seekers to most mainland capitals, including Sydney, Darwin, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne.
Records show the number of flights and people being taken off the island were at their peak after the Christmas Island riots in March, in which large sections of the accommodation wing of the detention centre were destroyed by fire and tear gas was used by authorities on about 250 detainees.
The tender documents show the most expensive charter flight was recorded on May 6, with 51 detainees flown to the remote West Australian town of Leonora at a total cost of $450,986.80.
A further $380,000 was spent in two days on April 20 and April 21 to fly groups of asylum seekers to Adelaide and Melbourne. In total, 12 charter contracts were awarded to three charter flight companies at a cost of $3,111,083.10
The opposition spokesman for immigration, Scott Morrison, said: ''This is the cost of Labor's failed border protection policy. Regardless of what the government announces with Malaysia, the cost of these failures to date will be with us for years to come.''
Calls to the Department of Immigration were not returned.