Two boat people taken by bus to Adelaide last month after their release from detention in Western Australia are desperate not to be a burden on South Australia's small Afghan community.

The men, in their early 20s, were sent to Adelaide after five months at Port Hedland detention centre. They have a small cash allowance and access to limited support services.

Meanwhile, the Afghan community - so small it could barely find enough blankets and bedding for the pair - has been told by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs to expect a larger contingent of refugees soon.

South Australian Premier John Olsen said this week he believed about 1100 of the 1300 boat people in detention at Woomera would soon be released under temporary protection visas.

The South Australian Government will offer four weeks' public housing on compassionate grounds, but Mr Olsen has warned of new pressures on health and emergency services.

The two men who fled Afghanistan say they did so because of the Taliban, the fundamentalist group responsible for the persecution of thousands of Afghans. They did not set out to come to Australia - this was a geographical detail that came into play later.

"We had to get out of Afghanistan," one said.

"We didn't have any special purpose to go to Australia or somewhere else, but we found Australia the easiest way to risk our life."

In Indonesia they paid $US3000 ($A5100) to be dropped on a small island whose name they still do not know. They said they were treated well at Port Hedland, and after being cleared for release they were taken to Adelaide without really knowing or caring where they were going.

"For us, because we were free from detention where you see the same place every day and don't have the freedom to go anywhere, when I got out I felt I was born a second time," one said.

After a 60-hour bus trip complicated by mechanical breakdown, they arrived in Adelaide with 25 others and are living two to a room in one of seven houses set aside by the South Australian Government for short-term refugee accommodation. Some have left for Sydney or Melbourne, but most of the group is still here.

The refugees, three of whom were minors and made wards of the state, were taken to Centrelink and have access to Medicare and some special benefits. They have enough to eat, they say, but less than $200 with which to find a house and a job.

"Of course the first thing is to look for a job because we don't like to be a burden to the government," one said. Both have left family behind; one has a young wife with whom he has had no contact for eight months, the other is the oldest of six brothers.

Adelaide is a peaceful place, they say, and for that they are grateful.