Standoff ends at Australian immigration detention camp

The unrest broke out on Monday following the death of an asylum seeker who escaped from the facility.

The immigration department said all areas of the facility were now under “full and effective control” after negotiations with the detainees.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said five detainees sustained minor lacerations and injuries “as a result of their interaction with the police and their refusal to comply with directions”.

Officials stressed that they believed the people involved in the riot were detainees who had already had their visas denied rather than asylum seekers still waiting to be processed.

Australian opposition politicians are calling for a review of the conditions at the detention center.

Detainees have complained about their treatment at the facility, which now houses 203 men, including asylum seekers awaiting processing and non-citizens being deported because they have criminal convictions. The man’s body was found on Sunday at the base of a precipice on the island.

Caged like animals… detainees in Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre have been herded up and put in cages. “I’ve explained that to my counterparts in New Zealand and we have made it very clear to the detainees as well”, he said.

The riot that began Sunday night had left a few parts of the detention center severely damaged, the department said.

More would follow as the government was determined to bring the perpetrators of the damage to justice, he said.

“We need to know that appropriate security is in place at the centre and staff are adequately trained to deal with detainees, including those that have had visas cancelled”, he said on Wednesday.

Police eventually stormed the centre after the riots, with reports detainees barricaded themselves into compounds had armed themselves with chainsaws, petrol bombs and machetes.

Under controversial policies, Australia sends all intercepted asylum seekers to Christmas Island as well as Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the South Pacific.

“I called Christmas Island [after the riot] and they said they were keeping the phones for investigations”.

The country’s immigration department announced that staff had been withdrawn from the facility for “safety reasons”.