Australia is being told to expect more asylum seekers to make their way to the country from Papua.

Forty-three Papuan asylum seekers arrived on Cape York on Wednesday and have been sent to Christmas Island; refugee advocates say the group includes independence campaigners from the Indonesian province.

John Wing from the University of Sydney's Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies says there are reports Indonesian military activity has been increasing in Papua and that could lead more people to seek asylum in Australia.

"This may be a trend that we see developing over the coming year or two as the military operations are stepped up in Papua against the local people.

"As in other parts of the world, the fighting and the human rights situation becomes too grim in one's homeland, that these people are forced to flee to the place of nearest sanctuary and in this part of the world, for the Papuans, it's Australia."

The Indonesian embassy says there is no persecution in Papua.

Mr Wing says he believes a prominent student activist is part of the group.

He says the man has already spent time in jail for attending independence meetings and could be persecuted if he is sent back to Papua.

"Many villages have been burned to the ground; houses, clinics, schools, churches have all been destroyed by arson, by the Indonesian armed forces, and some of these refugees are from that area," he said.