The men in the makeshift detention centre at the Park Hotel have each spent years in detention after being medically evacuated to Australia from Nauru or Papua New Guinea.

Ahmad Zahir Azizi was one of the first to test positive.

The 35-year-old Afghani developed a headache, he says. Medical staff gave him paracetamol but he still felt unwell. Eventually, he collapsed in the bathroom and called himself an ambulance.

It was the paramedics who told him he might have COVID-19, he tells AAP, his speech punctuated by coughing.

A few hours later his test came back positive.

Once the first positive results came in on October 16 - the first time any detainees in the immigration system had caught the virus during the pandemic - fear spread quickly.

The men share a dining hall, protest together and cannot open windows inside the hotel.

"People were telling me, 'we lost our freedom, now we're going to lose our life,'" Iraqi refugee Mustafa Salah says.

They'd raised their concerns throughout the pandemic, most recently when Australian Border Force staff called a meeting to let them know a guard at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation facility tested positive last month.

But officials told the detainees not to worry, reassuring them it wouldn't reach the hotel.

"The guys got very angry and said, 'if the virus comes here, what are we going to do?'" Mr Salah recalls.

"There was no answer. People get very frustrated."

Mohammad Kord, 38, tested positive on October 17.

Unlike Mr Azizi, he's vaccinated and his symptoms were limited to a fever for two or three days.

But along with the other positive cases, he's being quarantined alone in a room on a lower floor at the hotel. The food is terrible and he hasn't had access to a laundry to wash his clothes in nearly two weeks, he tells AAP.

Both men say they haven't received enough medical attention - a claim the ABF denies. Mr Azizi says he called an ambulance twice while experiencing "really bad" chest pain but it was not allowed onto the hotel grounds. The ABF denies this.

He also says he's asked for paracetamol if he can't see a doctor but he hasn't even received that.

"They want to kill me inside the hotel," he says. "If you're not given medicine and you have COVID, what are they thinking?"

Mr Kord says it's only in the last few days that nurses have been stationed on the floor at night, he believes as a result of media coverage. Air filters were only distributed late this week as well, in lieu of fresh air.

A few levels above, Mr Salah, 23, is also stuck alone in a room, despite twice testing negative for the virus.

A committed weightlifter who arrived on Nauru with his father when he was just 14, his mental health is struggling with the isolation.

"There's too much pressure on my mind. A few days ago I was crying in my room, I don't know what's going on," he says.

He's believes he's reached his limit.

"They drain our minds with always bad news, bad news. We've never had good news."

The men say they don't know why they're still being held in detention after coming to Australia for medical help, in some cases more than three years ago, after they already suffered years in offshore detention stretching back to 2013.

"We're not criminals," Mr Salah says. "We just came for a better life. Now they're destroying my life."

Mr Kord says he should be released to the community or sent to a third country like New Zealand, which has offered to resettle some of the refugees.

"If Australia doesn't want us, then let us go," he says. "Our life is at risk. We got COVID by force."

ABF on Saturday afternoon confirmed 22 detainees at a Melbourne Alternative Place of Detention had tested positive.

"All detainees at the facility are being tested for COVID-19 in accordance with Victorian Public Health Unit requirements," it said in a statement.

"The detention health service provider has multiple nursing staff on-site and a general practitioner has attended the site and is available via telehealth at all times."

It said it had actively engaged with Victorian authorities during the pandemic to mitigate risk and detainees who were unwell were "closely monitored ... tested, quarantined and provided appropriate medical care".

AAP also contacted the offices of Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews and Immigration Minister Alex Hawke for comment.

Australian Associated Press