Australian authorities regain control of refugee center following riots

Australian authorities dispatched reinforcements to the Christmas Island detention center, located in the Indian Ocean south of the Indonesian island of Java, after protesters set several fires, forcing the guards and other staffers to abandon the facility.

But the department said the majority of detainees cooperated with service providers in restoring control.

The immigration department said the perimeter was secure.

Five detainees were injured during the security crackdown on the remote Australian territory of Christmas Island.

The department denied there was a “large-scale” riot, but said staff had withdrawn from the compound for safety reasons.

The department declined to specify the number of staff that had been evacuated when contacted by AFP.

They apparently reacted angrily to the death of Fazel Chegeni, an Iranian Kurdish asylum seeker whose body was found at the bottom of a cliff on the island after he escaped on Friday or Saturday.

But opposition Greens Party Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who said that the center was “in meltdown”, demanded that the government disclose the extent of the unrest and exercise restraint in responding to it.

He added that the detainees had caused more than $1 million in damage and would be prosecuted.

A detainee told Radio New Zealand (RNZ) a few inmates had armed themselves to resist any attempt to re-take the facility.

Asylum seekers in the camp have often been intercepted en route for mainland Australia.

Reports said a hard core of detainees were confronting guards and refusing to return to their cells.

“In many cases they would be awaiting deportation because their visas had been cancelled because they failed the character test or have engaged in serious criminal activity, so that’s the sort of population we’re dealing with”.

Officials say those leading the unrest were detainees whose visas had been cancelled.

Labour MP Kelvin Davis said New Zealanders would be the “scapegoat” for riots.

Female MPs a few of them victims of sexual assault have united in requesting an apology from Prime Minister John Key over his comments saying Labour “backed rapists”.

“It all went haywire”, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

One man, New Zealander Tuk Whakatutu, said earlier yesterday the detainees had retreated into one of the detention centre’s compounds after they were surrounded by police in riot gear.