Unrest Breaks Out at Australian Migrant Detention Center

“There’s an operation under way at the moment and we want to restore calm and order to the centre”, Dutton told reporters in Canberra.

The Christmas Island centre also houses New Zealanders facing deportation from Australia.

Suspected asylum seekers arrive at Christmas Island after being intercepted by the Australian Navy.

Rintoul said refugees find ways to contact them and inform them of these issues, but lately constant attacks and raids in the centres have taken place to confiscate the refugees’ phones.

Access to the centre has been blocked off by police with Australian Border Force staff onsite and their vehicles, including a fire truck, seen leaving the area.

“We can’t stay here any longer because there’s no facilities, it’s just a f***in’ mess”, he said. “There are no reports at this time of any injuries to detainees or staff”, the Immigration statement said.

Critics of the policy include New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, pointing out that many are being deported over minor crimes committed years ago and have no ties to their homeland after decades living in Australia.

A few 2,044 people are now in immigration detention, including 113 children, “down from a peak of 2,000 (children) in middle of 2013”, said Steve McGlynn of the immigration and border protection department.

It comes as Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told Parliament on Monday that there were “no suspicious circumstances” in relation to the death of an Iranian asylum seeker, who refugee action groups have identified as Fazel Chegeni.

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

“One of them said to me: “I’m not going to throw the first punch”.

“Really they’re just scared and bracing themselves for what’s next”.

Asylum seekers trying to enter Australia by boat have since 2013 been turned back or sent to detention camps on Nauru or Papua New Guinea.

“They could claim they are investigating the asylum seeker, but in the end it is punishment”.

New Zealand politician Kelvin Davis, who recently visited the island, said a New Zealander detained at the facility told him that asylum seekers had taken over the centre and guards have retreated.

A further update, also carrying the #freethe501s hash tag, explained that the fight broke out after a detainee was allegedly attacked after inquiring about the death of the asylum seeker.

“Other detainees are beginning fires everywhere … they’ve broken to the canteen, in the home region”, Mr Cuperka was quoted as saying.

The Australian government downplayed an outbreak of violence at its offshore detention centre on Christmas Island Monday, even as frightened inmates told national media that rioters had overtaken parts of the facility.

“The Australians aren’t interested in negotiating a peaceful resolution… they’ve gone to the expense of flying over reinforcements who’ve got to earn their money”.