Rioting broke out after an escaped Iranian Kurdish asylum seeker was found dead at the bottom of cliffs.
Advertisement
Australian police were trying to restore order on Tuesday at a remote detention center for asylum seekers in the Indian Ocean, after detainees staged a protest and lit a series of small fires throughout the compound.
The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, defended the use of “reasonable” force by police, and said they had responded appropriately, including towards an inmate said to have had a chainsaw.
Immigration officials say a little group of Iranian migrants arranged a peaceful protest taking after the refuge seeker’s demise, yet different prisoners then started harming the property, lighting a few little flames and inciting guard to retreat.
One inmate, New Zealander Tuk Whakatutu, said earlier today the detainees had retreated into one of the detention centre’s compounds after they were surrounded by police in riot gear.
It said they stayed overnight in “temporary but secure parts of the centre” and reports of detainees sleeping in cages were false.
Australia’s Immigration Department said authorities regained control largely through negotiation, but a hardened group of criminals resisted.
Australia was criticized for placing hardline criminals in the same detention facility.
Asylum seekers are a hot political issue in Australia where successive governments have vowed to stop them reaching the mainland, sending those intercepted on unsafe boats to camps on Christmas Island, and more recently Manus island in Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the South Pacific.
The immigration department confirmed there was a “major disturbance” at the immigration detention center on the Australian territory of Christmas Island.
Most Christmas Island detainees had unrestricted access to their mobile phones before the riot.
Justice Minister Amy Adams said last night that the she had spoken to Mr Dutton in a “constructive” conversation about the process behind Kiwis being sent back to New Zealand.
This is not the first time that detainees complain about their treatment at the facility.
Australian expert Fiona McGaughey said that countries are often wary of speaking up about refugee rights due to their own poor records, but Monday’s condemnation revealed Australia’s extreme position.
Advertisement
Christmas Island Shire president Gordon Thomson said that he believes Chegeni was “driven to his death” by his detention.
