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Australia asylum: One killed in riot at PNG camp Australia asylum: One killed in violence at PNG camp
(about 1 hour later)
One asylum seeker has been killed and 77 injured during a second night of rioting at Australia's immigrant detention centre in Papua New Guinea. 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.
Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said the news of a death at the Manus Island was "a great tragedy". The man died of head injuries on the way to hospital, Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said.
The rioting comes after some of the detainees briefly escaped from the detention centre on Sunday. Thirteen people suffered serious injuries including two who were being transferred to Australia for treatment, one with a gunshot wound.
Manus Island hosts one of Australia's offshore processing camps for asylum seekers. He said the injuries occurred outside the camp, after the men broke out.
Asylum is a sensitive issue in Australia, despite the relatively small numbers involved. "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.
UNHCR's Asylum Trends 2012 report said Australia received only 3% of global asylum applications in 2012. Security outside the centre in Manus Island was the domain of the PNG police, he said.
'Heightened tensions' "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.
"This is a tragedy but 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 was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency. 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.
The minister said that one of those injured was in a critical condition with a skull fracture and another 22 were currently being treated. "PNG police and locals carried out systematic attacks, savage attacks on the asylum seekers last night," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Conditions in the remote Pacific camp, and in another centre on Nauru, have been the subject of stringent criticism from both UN agencies and human rights groups. 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".
The death came after "much-heightened" tensions at the detention centre, as detainees "became agitated" after they were told would be resettled in PNG and "a third-country option will not be offered", Mr Morrison said earlier. He called the death of the asylum seeker "a great tragedy".
Non-essential staff were evacuated as detainees knocked down fences and smashed glass panels and bunk beds on Sunday. "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 escaped asylum seekers were "quickly located", the minister added. The violence comes after some of the detainees briefly escaped from the detention centre on Sunday.
'Left in limbo' 'Must be closed'
The previous Labor government decided to re-establish offshore processing camps on Nauru and Manus Island in 2012, after ending the policy - known as the Pacific Solution - in 2008. In recent months Australia has taken a very tough stance in a bid to halt the flow of asylum-seekers, who arrive by boat via Indonesia.
It also said that people found to be refugees would be settled in Papua New Guinea, not Australia, a policy the current Liberal-National government has agreed to uphold. Manus Island is one of two offshore processing camps to which asylum seekers are transferred. The other is on the Pacific island of Nauru.
However, the details of the agreement between Australia and PNG are still to be confirmed. Conditions at both of these camps have been the subject of harsh criticism from both UN agencies and human rights groups.
Last week, PNG Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato said that the government would appoint a group of "eminent Papua New Guineans" and seek expertise from the UN and Australia to determine "whether those asylum seekers will or will not be settled in PNG". Australia has also initiated a policy - aimed as a deterrent - whereby those people found to be genuine refugees will be settled in Papua New Guinea rather than Australia.
Sunday's break-out is reported to have taken place after detainees were told that they would not be resettled in Australia.
Rights groups argue that prolonged detention in cramped, over-heated conditions, compounded by a lack of clarity over when asylum claims will be assessed and where the applicant might end up, can lead to mental health issues in detainees.
They have also questioned whether Australia is adequately protecting vulnerable people.
Greens spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the violence showed the centre "must be closed, and it must be closed now."
''Clearly there needs to be an inquiry into this,'' the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Human Rights Commission President Prof Gillian Triggs as saying.
''The primary obligation that Australia has is to offer protection for asylum seekers and we cannot abdicate that responsibility by sending people to a third country, in this case Papua New Guinea, but it is clear that responsibility is not being met.''
Mr Morrison said that the government was determined to stick to its policies.