WA: Detention centre quiet after detainees back down
PERTH, April 25 AAP - The Port Hedland detention centre in Western Australia remainscalm today after asylum seekers agreed to end a standoff with guards last night.
Refugee advocates said detainees were confined to quarters after one man leapt froma tree in a bid to gain the attention of Immigration Department officials investigatingcamp conditions yesterday.
The Immigration Department denied detainees had been confined, with a spokesman sayingthe injured man had climbed a tree two hours after the inspection team departed.
He appeared to slip from the tree while speaking to staff, he said.
The man was taken to hospital and airlifted to Perth for further treatment, while twoguards who attempted to break his fall were also injured.
Around 150 detainees subsequently went on a rampage, smashing an accommodation blockand hurling chunks of concrete at staff before largely dispersing, the spokesman said.
But a group of between 20 and 30 inmates armed with a sledgehammer, steel bars andconcrete blocks continued a standoff with guards until late last night.
The centre remained quiet this morning and the department expected a report on thecondition of the man still in hospital later today, he said.
"Things are still quiet and relatively back to normal," he said.
"There will be a report some time this morning to say what condition the man is in."
The latest unrest came after a riot at the Curtin Detention Centre in the state's farnorth last Friday which left 28 staff injured and much of the remote centre's office andkitchen equipment in ruins.
Port Hedland authorities would conduct an internal investigation into the incidentand report back to the immigration department, he said.
AAP kp/nf/jmd/sb
KEYWORD: HEDLAND DAYLEAD
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