There are 27 asylum seeker children remaining on Nauru after multiple families were flown off the island for medical treatment, advocates say.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says 25 people – eight children as part of six families – left the Pacific island on Monday to be brought to Australia for medical treatment.

“We welcome the government finally moving to bring kids to Australia. After five years, every moment is too long,” ASRC spokeswoman Jana Favero said in a statement on Monday.

“Everyone’s had enough. The Australian government sponsored offshore detention medical crisis needs to end now.”

The asylum seekers remaining on Nauru and Manus Island were facing critical and serious medical issues, she added.

However, once the families receive medical treatment they will not be resettled permanently in Australia.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton last week confirmed all asylum seeker children would be taken from Nauru by the end of this year, and non-refugees would be made to go back to their country of origin.

Refugees would be sent to the United States or resettled in other countries.

Labor also supports banning the asylum seekers from permanently settling in Australia, with opposition immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann reaffirming the party’s policy of offshore processing and regional resettlement.