Logistics group Transfield will provide services for an asylum-seeker detention centre to be re-opened on Nauru, the Federal Government says.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen today said Transfield Services had been contracted for work on the South Pacific island, which is due to soon begin receiving asylum seeker boat arrivals.

"This will include catering, cleaning, security, transport and facilities," he told reporters in Canberra.

Mr Bowen earlier signed the legislative instrument designating Nauru as a regional processing country under the Migration Act.

"The designation will allow for the transfer of irregular maritime arrivals, who arrived after 13 August, to Nauru," he said.