18/02/2014 10:22
Australia asylum: One killed in violence at PNG camp
One asylum seeker has been killed and 77 injured during a second night of violence at Australia's immigration detention centre in Papua New Guinea, the BBC reported.
The man died of head injuries on the way to hospital, Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said.
Thirteen people suffered serious injuries including two who were being transferred to Australia for treatment, one with a gunshot wound.
He said the injuries occurred outside the camp, after the men broke out.
"This was a very dangerous situation where people decided to protest in a very violent way and to take themselves outside the centre and place themselves at great risk," Mr Morrison said.
Security outside the centre in Manus Island was the domain of the PNG police, he said.
"Those who are maintaining the environment outside the centre need to use their powers and various accoutrements that they have available to them to restore order in the way that is provided for under PNG law," he said.
Ian Rintoul, of the Refugee Action Coalition, however, said detainees at Manus Island had told him that locals and PNG police entered the camp and attacked them, after a day of tensions.
"PNG police and locals carried out systematic attacks, savage attacks on the asylum seekers last night," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Mr Morrison, the immigration minister, said he had been told that "PNG police did not enter the centre and that their activities related only to dealing with transferees who breached the external perimeter."
He called the death of the asylum seeker "a great tragedy."
"We don't know what occurred outside the centre and that obviously will be the subject of an investigation into that person's death," he said.
The violence comes after some of the detainees briefly escaped from the detention centre on Sunday.