'Major disturbance' at Australian detention center following death of refugee

(Image credit: Twitter.com/SBS)

last updated 9 November 2015

Australian officials say what started as a peaceful protest over the death of an Iranian Kurd has been hijacked by other detainees who have started fires at Australia's Christmas Island Immigration Detention Facility.

In a statement, Australia's Department of Immigration and Border Protection said it's possible that the fires have damaged the medical, educational, and athletic facilities, and while it's not a large-scale riot, the situation remains "tense" and "staff have been withdrawn from compounds for safety reasons." Christmas Island, 1,650 miles northwest of Perth, is where Australia sends refugees, asylum seekers, and New Zealanders facing deportation from Australia.

The "major disturbance" began Sunday, when a group of Iranian detainees peacefully protested after an Iranian Kurd named Fazel Chegeni escaped Saturday and was found dead Sunday at the bottom of a cliff outside the center, the BBC reports. Peaceful protests are permissible, the statement said, but "other detainees took advantage of the situation to engage in property damage and general unrest." There have been no reports of injuries to detainees or staff, and "the department is endeavoring to make contact with detainees involved in the protest to resolve the situation in a peaceful and safe manner." Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition group told the Sydney Morning Herald that Chegeni was "suffering the effects of long-term arbitrary detention," and before escaping spoke with other detainees and said he could "no longer stand being in detention and just wanted to go outside."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.