Australian police quell immigration centre riot

Updated August 30, 2010 09:52:19

Order has been restored at an immigration detention centre in the northern Australian city of Darwin overnight, after a riot broke out there over the weekend.

Northern Territory Police and Australian Federal Police officers were called in to help deal with a dispute involving up to 100 detainees. Some armed with poles climbed onto the roof, while others set mattresses on fire.

Presenter:Lindy Kerin
Speakers: Sandi Logan, Immigration Department spokesman; Pamela Curr, the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre

KERIN: Late last night, Northern Territory police officers were still at the Northern Immigration Detention Centre in Darwin.

They'd spent most of the day there trying to restore calm after a riot broke out among detainees.

The Department of Immigration spokesman Sandi Logan has confirmed those involved in the riot were alleged people smugglers from Indonesia

LOGAN: The compound where this protest took place had 97 Indonesian crewmen involved, all of whom have allegedly been involved in people smuggling, they were all crew members onboard boats that allegedly smuggled asylum seekers into Australia.

KERIN: Sandi Logan refused to be drawn on what sparked the riot, but it's understood the inmates are angry about the length of time it's taking to have their charges heard in the courts.


LOGAN: When you are allegedly involved in people smuggling, there are investigations, quite rightly so, which must be undertaken and police are doing their job in that respect and in other cases, some of the other people smugglers are currently before the courts and so those matters need to be tested in the courts under the justice system that prevails in Australia and if that does take some time, so be it.

KERIN: Under Federal laws, crew members onboard asylum seeker boats are charged with people-smuggling offences, which carry a minimum sentence of five years in jail.

But Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says it can take many months for the charges to be heard.

She says the weekend incident highlights the growing frustration among detainees.

CURR: The length of time is blowing out of all proportion, I mean the fishermen, why haven't they been charged and had their matters heard. Why are they sitting there waiting for months. The people smugglers, most of them are either teenage, or young Indonesian fishermen, who have for as little as 50 dollars brought people over, they are not people smugglers in the politicians' sense of the word.

KERIN: Pamela Curr says it's extremely difficult to know exactly what's happening at the Detention Centre because of tight restrictions on communication imposed by the department of immigration and the contractor Serco Australia.

CURR:In order for us to make contact, we can't ring in, we have to wait for people to ring out, so if Immigration and SERCO decide that they don't want any information to come out, they block the phone and no-one can ring out.

KERIN: Australian Federal Police officers are investigating the weekend riot, and charges could be laid.

Sandi Logan is urging the inmates to co-operate with authorities.


LOGAN: They need to understand that cooperation is what's important here. We do not negotiate with people who are protesting, whatever their grievances are, it is important that they need to understand to cooperate with the order and the structure that is in place within the detention centre.