‘Riot’ At Migrant Camp After Detainee Dies

Extra police had to be flown to the island to help restore calm, as rioting detainees tore down fences and used makeshift weapons against centre staff.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection said the remaining detainees at the centre were being returned to accommodation compounds, which were being repaired as a priority.

Staff working at Australia’s immigration detention center on Christmas Island left the facility on Monday following what the migration authority called a “major disturbance” triggered by the death of an escaped refugee.

Dutton said earlier that the unrest began late Sunday night following the death of an asylum seeker, whose body was discovered by search and rescue teams at the bottom of cliffs away from the centre.

Most prisoners cooperated with police moderators at the detainment centre on the Australian part of Christmas Island, yet authorities used “some power” against a center group of agigators who had build blockades and had warned to utilize weapons, the immigrant office said in an announcement.

The government says the journey the asylum seekers make is risky and controlled by criminal gangs and they have a duty to stop it. Critics say opposition to asylum is often racially motivated and is damaging Australia’s reputation. The death is now being investigated.

Peter Dutton said on Thursday that the estimated value of the damage caused by rioters at the Christmas Island facility is close to $10 million.

New Zealand lawmaker Kelvin Davis, who recently visited the island, said a New Zealander held at the facility told him that detainees had taken over the center.

That could also include any asylum seekers who took part and potentially harm their chances of being grated visas.

“Americans have a problem with guns”, Pamela Curr, a spokeswoman with Autralia’s Asylum Seeker Resource Center told the BBC, “and Australia has a problem with boats”.

He blamed the unrest on “a hardened criminal population that occupies the immigration detention centre”. Transfield runs Australia’s controversial offshore detention centers on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island. The government has said there were no suspicious circumstances.

At least five people were injured and widespread damage caused.