Tear gas used to quell Australia migrant centre unrest
Australian police used tear gas to put
down a two-day riot at a migrant
detention centre Tuesday, where
detainees, reportedly armed with
machetes, chainsaws and petrol bombs,
were running amok.
Reinforcements were sent to the remote
Christmas Island facility after violence
erupted and fires were set in a protest
triggered late Sunday by the unexplained
death of a man.
“The department can confirm all areas of
the Christmas Island Immigration
Detention Facility are under the full and
effective control of service providers and
department staff,” the Immigration
Department said in a statement.
Five detainees were being treated for
non-life threatening injuries, while
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said
the damage bill would be well over Aus
$1 million (US$700,000).
Police used tear gas and bean-bag
rounds — designed to deliver an
immobilising but not lethal blow — to
subdue rioters.
“Some force was used with a core group
of detainees who had built barricades
and actively resisted attempts to secure
compounds, including threatened use of
weapons and improvised weapons,” the
department said.
“A full survey of damage to the centre is
yet to be completed, but some common
areas appear to be severely damaged.”
The disturbance at the Indian Ocean
centre began after an escaped asylum-
seeker, named in Australian media as
Iranian-Kurdish man Fazel Chegeni, was
found dead.
Reports said his body was discovered at
the base of a cliff. The government has
said there were no suspicious
circumstances.
Detainees, some of whom are non-
resident criminals awaiting deportation,
have complained about their treatment
at the facility.
– ‘Petrol bombs, machetes and
chainsaws’ –
One man, New Zealander Tuk
Whakatutu, said earlier Tuesday the
detainees had retreated into one of the
detention centre’s compounds after they
were surrounded by police in riot gear.
Whakatutu said most were hoping for a
peaceful resolution but a hard-core
group of 20 to 30 young men, mainly
New Zealanders and Pacific islanders,
were “tooled up” and determined to
fight.
“I want nothing to do with it but, all the
young fellas are gee-d up and all they
want to do is go to war with them,” he
told Radio New Zealand via telephone,
with sirens blaring in the background.
“They’ve got petrol bombs, they’ve got
machetes, they’ve got chainsaws, iron
bars, they’ve got all sorts.”
The unrest at Christmas Island came as
the United Nations’ top human rights
body took Australia to task over hardline
policies on asylum-seekers, whom it has
pushed back by the boatload and
incarcerated in offshore camps.
Under Canberra’s tough immigration
rules, asylum-seekers arriving by boat
are processed on isolated Pacific islands
— Nauru and Papua New Guinea’s
Manus Island — rather than the
Australian mainland.
As well as asylum-seekers, Christmas
Island’s facility is also used to hold non-
citizens awaiting deportation, including
criminals, after Canberra began
cancelling visas of those with
convictions.
Dutton said there were now 199 men
being held at the centre including armed
robbers, child sex offenders, rapists,
drug convicts and violent offenders,
including two locked up for
manslaughter.
He said there would be a review of
security arrangements following the
incident but stressed the melee was
confined to the facility, and never
breached the perimeter fence.
“There are lessons to be learnt, no
doubt,” he said. “If we need to provide
additional security, that’s exactly what
we’ll do.”
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