Seventeen Vietnamese asylum seekers who claim to be unaccompanied minors are missing from immigration centres.
The Immigration Department has confirmed 36 minors have escaped from custody between July 2010 and January 17 this year.
Nineteen Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi and stateless asylum seekers have since been found but the remaining 17 boys, all Vietnamese, are still missing.
The department says that number could change because the ages of the missing boys is not always certain.
A spokesman says finding the boys is a high priority for the department, and that they are working with all the relevant agencies, including the police.
The spokesman also says there is no indication that any of the missing boys have been caught up in child trafficking.
The Refugee Action Coalition says the missing asylum seekers have been taken in by the Vietnamese community after fleeing to sympathetic members of the public.
Spokesman Ian Rintoul says they were scared of detention and deportation.
"We can see now that they're more than likely living quite safely in the Vietnamese community and had the Government engaged the Vietnamese community in the first place then perhaps they would have spent two years living safely and legally in the community rather than having to do it under the radar," he said.abc.net.au
