Human rights groups have urged Australia to lift a freeze on processing Afghan refugee claims.
The calls came as a hunger strike by about 200 detainees at a camp for illegal immigrants entered its sixth day.
Afghan detainees at Woomera, the biggest and most remote of the country's controversial illegal immigrant camps, began a hunger strike last Wednesday with dozens sewing their lips shut to protest the time it takes to process their applications.
After last month's collapse of the Taliban, Canberra abruptly stopped processing asylum bids by Afghans, arguing it needed to assess the new situation in Afghanistan to determine if refugee claims were valid.
Amnesty International condemned the freeze, which has left in limbo 447 Afghans detained behind barbed wire in Australia's six detention centres, which house 2,143 detainees.
Amnesty spokesman Graham Thom said "It is totally inappropriate to keep someone in detention when you are not processing their claim. They should be granted temporary visas".
An Immigration Department spokesman said 186 of the 238 Afghan detainees at Woomera, including 30 aged under 18, were refusing food and water on Monday, 62 of them with sewn lips.
Management at the centre are negotiating with detainee delegates to allow those who want to eat to do so.
The number of hunger strikers was down from 210 on Saturday when three youths - aged 12, 14 and 15 - who had sewn their mouths shut were taken to hospital suffering from dehydration.
They had the stitches removed from their lips, were given food and fluids and sent back to the camp.