November 10, 2015•Update: November 10, 2015
By Jill Fraser
MELBOURNE
Two days after riots broke out at an Australian immigration detention center in the Indian Ocean order has returned, tear gas used to subdue rioters after a Kurdish-Iranian refugee died over the weekend.
The Australian Immigration and Border Protection Department said in a statement that most detainees had cooperated with police after reinforcements were flown to Christmas Island, while Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has said tear gas and some force were required to quell the riots.
"Well over a million dollar’s worth of damage" has been sustained, Dutton told ABC on Tuesday night.
The riot broke out after riot squad officers attacked the friend of an Iranian Kurd who died Saturday while being chased by guards after escaping detention Saturday.
Inmates are reported to have said that they heard the dead man -- identified as 30-something Fazel Chegeni -- being pursued after he escaped detention.
"We heard him screaming. I think they were chasing him through the jungle. Then the screams just stopped," one unnamed inmate told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Guards later told inmates that Chegeni had died in an accident.
Dutton told ABC that convicted criminals were involved in the riots, some of whom, he conceded, had accessed chain saws and a machete from a gardening shed.
As well as asylum seekers, the detention centre is home to people waiting to be deported after spending time in jail and having their visas cancelled on character grounds.
In total there are 199 detainees in the centre; 113 of which are convicted criminals.
Dutton added that security arrangements at the center would be reviewed, with additional funding provided.
