A group of 56 Sri Lankan asylum seekers are on land today after spending the last month on an Australian customs vessel.

The Sri Lankans were picked up at sea by the Oceanic Viking a month ago after they sent a distress call in Indonesia's search and rescue zone.

Officials said they will be taken to a naval base and then transferred to an immigration center.

Last week 22 men got off the vessel and stayed at an immigration detention center on Indonesia’s Bintan Island. They agreed to disembark after Canberra offered assurances they would be resettled in Australia within four weeks.

The standoff between Indonesia and Australia over how to handle the asylum-seekers has brought some frostiness to Canberra-Jakarta relations.

Since January, 39 boats carrying more than 1,800 people have arrived in Australian waters. Australia is seeking Indonesia's help to block the surge of asylum-seekers.

The Australian prime minister has strongly defended his border protection policies and says the influx of boats is due to the end of civil war in Sri Lanka.

But critics say softer laws introduced by the Australian government have encouraged the new wave of arrivals.