A dozen foreign-born criminals locked up in Australia have been punted back to Italy and the UK aboard a charter plane.
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Despite restrictions on global travel during the coronavirus pandemic, they were kicked out of the country on Wednesday afternoon.
Kiwi crooks have also been sent packing back to New Zealand.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the flights were expensive but argued it was money well spent.
"I honestly believe our country is safer for them not being here," he told 2GB radio on Thursday.
"No doubt some of their family members aren't too happy with me.
"We'll continue to send people to their countries of origin, wherever they were born."
Hundreds more foreign criminals facing deportation are being shipped off to detention on Christmas Island.
Australia's onshore immigration detention centres are struggling to cope with "unlawful non-citizens" who can't be expelled, particularly given coronavirus health protocols.
"We've taken really the worst of the criminals that we've got in our network and we're in the process of taking them to Christmas Island," Mr Dutton said.
"Hopefully those 250 will exit Christmas Island back to their country of origin over the coming months, but at the moment we've got a high security facility there, and that's the best place for them."
The Australian Border Force has offered a public assurance that no refugees will be sent to the island, but advocates are not convinced.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre is also concerned Christmas Island lacks medical facilities and has poor internet connection.
ASRC principal lawyer Carolyn Graydon said the reshuffle risked the lives of detainees, staff and the wider community.
"The clear answer to managing COVID-19 risks in overcrowded detention centres is to release people into the community so they can take self-protective measures like everyone else in Victoria and other states," she said.
There are now 1550 people in immigration detention on the mainland, down from a record 10,200 in 2013.
More than 70 per cent of detainees have committed crimes and will be deported as a result.
About 250 of the most serious crims are being sent to Christmas Island to free up some space.
Christmas Island has previously housed asylum seekers and, more recently, people returning from the Chinese city of Wuhan in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.
The centre is also holding a Tamil family fighting deportation to Sri Lanka after being taken from the Queensland town of Biloela.
Australian Associated Press
