Sydney – Refugee activists want the Papuan asylum seekers who landed on the north Queensland coast this week to be brought back from Christmas Island and given bridging visas.

About 100 people gathered outside the Department of Immigration in Sydney today to protest the department's handling of the case.

The 36 adults and seven children were found on Cape York on Wednesday after fleeing the strife-torn Indonesian province of Papua five days earlier in a rickety boat.

The government last night used an Air Force Hercules to fly the group from Weipa to Christmas Island, where they are expected to arrive some time today.

Elizabeth Biok from the International Commission of Jurists told the rally today the asylum seekers needed to be brought back to the mainland to have proper access to legal aid.

"There is plenty of room here in Villawood or Baxter but they are at Christmas Island... so we can't go and visit them," Ms Biok said. "There are provisions in the Migration Act that allow them to be released on bridging visas. They have come here by the only way they know, by boat and directly, we shouldn't penalise them and we shouldn't have them stay on Christmas Island."

Greens Senator Kerry Nettle, who also attended the rally, said Australians needed to band together and demand that Papua be freed from Indonesian occupation as it did with East Timor in 1999.

"Eight thousand of the Australian defence forces were stationed in the West Papuan town of Merouke during world War II – the same town from where these people departed," Ms Nettle said.

"The local population supported these diggers but this government has failed to recognise this debt of honour. "We should stand together and demand as we did in 1999 for East Timor to have independence from Indonesia."

Ms Nettle also supported calls to give the Papuans a bridging visa until their claims for asylum are properly assessed.