Immigration Department confirms Christmas Island disturbance
Following the death of an Iranian Kurdish refugee, who fled the Christmas Island detention centre over the weekend, other detainees have started protesting since Sunday by damaging properties and setting the centre on fire.
“The protest action began when a small group of Iranian detainees took part in a peaceful protest following the escape from, and death outside the centre, of a detainee on Sunday,” the Department of Immigration said in a formal statement. “While peaceful protest is permissible, other detainees took advantage of the situation to engage in property damage and general unrest. A number of small fires have been lit within the centre.”
Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has also admitted to reports of unrest on the island but said there is nothing suspicious surrounding the death of the Kurdish Iranian assylum seeker.
"If people have caused damage to Commonwealth property, they will be investigated and prosecuted in relation to those matters," he told the parliament on Monday.
The Australian Federal Police declared the complex not safe for the local fire brigade to enter. According to the Australian, a group of AFP officers who were inside the complex informed that conditions within the detention centre are volatile and not safe for firefighters to intervene.
The protesting detainees have reportedly damaged medical, educational and sporting facilities, but so far there is no news of any kind of injury to either the detainees or the guards on the island.
Further reports suggest that the ongoing disturbances on the Christmas Island’s detention centre have forced the guards to abandon it.
Matej Cuperka, a 25-year-old detainee at the centre, told the ABC that the death of Fazal Chegeni, the refugee on run, was very suspicious. According to him, the protesting refugees are under the feeling that the officers from Serco, the centre management contractor, are responsible for the death. Cuperka said following the discovery of his dead body, riot broke out with the detainees setting fire to everything around the place.
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