Asylum seekers were involved in a riot at the Christmas Island detention centre, off the coast of
Thirty-seven people were injured in the chaos as around 150 people clashed and attacked each other with tree branches and pool handles.
It took the authorities more than half an hour to regain control over the situation.
The centre houses more than 1,000 asylum seekers, mainly Afghan and Sri Lankan, who had to be separated after the brawl. Most of the ‘Sri Lankan’ detainees are Tamils fleeing persecution by the Sri Lankan government.
After the incident 3 people had to be flown out of the centre to
Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans cited frustration amongst the Tamil detainees as a possible cause for the scuffle.
"There hasn't been too many problems but there has been some increased tension I think around the Sri Lankans, in particular being a bit concerned as we have had some people removed back to Sri Lanka... generally there has been a bit of anxiety among Sri Lankan detainees."
At
In the year to October 12, 544 Afghans were granted protection visas while 21 Sri Lankans were granted visas, which may have further exasperated tensions between the two groups.
The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said Tamil asylum-seeker claims were going nowhere.
"The problem is the Australian government is using the Sri Lankan embassy for security checks and identity checks," Ms Pamela Curr of the ASRC said.
"The Sri Lankan embassy is spitting bile about the Tamils. This is the way they can get at them: they go in slow, they don't release the information."
The detention centre is run by a private firm, Serco, who have recently been criticised over their handling of the centre. There is said to be overcrowding and restrictions on recreational activities.
Australian opposition immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone also expressed her concerns and called for an urgent inquiry into the centre's management.
"There's massive overcrowding now on
"I am seriously concerned about whether the department is now so overwhelmed by the numbers there."
Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition, spoke to many of the refugees housed at the detention centre and felt the sheer number of people being held there the most prominent cause of the brawl.
"I have spoken to one Afghan and one Tamil detainee inside the detention centre. The incident seems like it was confined to just one compound, but they were aware of the situation and had spoken to people and the Afghan guy had observed some of it certainly," he said.
"What they say is that there was no particular cause. That is a result, people are angry, people are frustrated.”
"The overcrowded conditions inside simply boiled over inside the Green 1 compound and the Afghan detainee told me he was surprised it hasn't happened before and he is very certain that it will happen again."
"There is restricted news access, restrictions on some of the access to kitchen facilities and making tea and coffee during the day, trying to save," he said. This came with reports that inmates are restricted to two teabags a day and no access to the internet.
"It is those kinds of tensions or there are ethnic tensions simply to divert attention away from the deteriorating conditions inside
"The Rudd Government has seen fit to continue those Howard government policies and it is now reaping the whirlwind.”
"All the consequences, all the difficulties that were faced by the Howard government, will be visited on the Rudd Government because they have perpetuated the appalling conditions in mandatory detention."
