Thirty-five asylum-seekers broke out of an Australian immigration detention on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and several were injured, officials said today, as tensions mount about their fate under hardline policies.
Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said the asylum-seekers escaped yesterday evening but were quickly rounded up by private security contractors at the facility, one of two remote Pacific camps used in Canberra's punitive off-shore detention policy.
Under the scheme, aimed at deterring people-smugglers, any asylum-seeker arriving by boat or intercepted at sea is transferred to Manus or Nauru for processing and permanent resettlement outside Australia.
Morrison said power poles and fences were toppled during the fracas, and bunk beds smashed to fashion makeshift weapons, but no buildings were destroyed.
Eight detainees were arrested over the disturbance, and Morrison said 19 went to the medical centre for treatment, "none of whom were exhibiting life-threatening conditions".
"As at this morning, five of those transferees remained at the clinic. A number of G4S (security contractor) staff also sustained minor injuries," Morrison told reporters.
He said he did not yet have a full report about the medical conditions of those who were treated.
Refugee activist Ian Rintoul said a number of the asylum-seekers had suffered broken hands and baton injuries, adding that one "has 70 stitches in his head", indicating a "use of force last night out of all proportion".
Rintoul said detainees now feared vigilante reprisals from islanders who oppose the Australian facility, with some inside the camp telling him locals had armed themselves with machetes, knives and guns.
"The imposition of the detention centre on Manus Island has created local tensions from the very start. The lack of transparency about resettlement has added to the tensions," he said.
The breakout followed a tense meeting at the centre between detainees and officials from Papua New Guinea's immigration and citizenship authority (ISCA) to discuss their fate if they were found to have a genuine refugee claim.
Morrison said detainees "became agitated and commenced chanting" after they were informed they would be resettled in PNG and "a third country option will not be offered".
They were also told that "that neither the PNG or the Australian governments will be acting on behalf of the transferees in seeking alternative settlement countries to PNG", added Morrison.
Though security staff used "personal protection gear", Morrison said "no batons or other weapons were in situ". He would not clarify what the gear was and whether it included capsicum spray.
