Immigration Minister Chris Bowen on Wednesday slammed the Greens and traced the drowning of 27 asylum seekers to the failure of the Malaysia refugee swap deal, which was supposed to create safe pathways for refugees to come to Australia.

"For Senator [Sarah] Hanson-Young to say we need to create more safe pathways when her party, and she in particular, have been remorseless in opposing the Malaysia arrangement ... I just found breathtaking and extraordinary," Bowen told ABC Radio Wednesday.

Bowen stressed the Malaysia deal was proposed for, among other reasons, the specific purpose of "creating safer pathways, increasing the humanitarian intake, taking more people out of places like Malaysia."

Hanson-Young had earlier urged the government to consider increasing its annual humanitarian intake.

"Safe pathways have to be at the cornerstone of any policy," she said, triggering criticism from Bowen.

Bowen said he had strongly argued that if the Malaysia deal was not put in place, there would be more deaths at sea.

"I have never been more disappointed to be proven right," he said.

Seven bodies, including two children, were recovered by Indonesian fishermen early Tuesday after a boat carrying about 70 people from Iran and Afghanistan sank en route to Australia. Up to 27 people are feared to have drowned.

"It is people smugglers who are responsible for deaths at sea,'' opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison told the Sydney Morning Herald.