Christmas Island riot: Peter Dutton says use of rubber bullets ‘up to police’

The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has not ruled out using rubber bullets or calling in the riot squad to quell unrest in the Christmas Island detention centre, saying Australian federal police (AFP) on the ground will make those determinations.

AFP and border force officials arrived at Christmas Island overnight, after a major disturbance during which detainees lit fires and made holes in the walls of the centre.

Dutton said on Tuesday that he had “full confidence” that AFP and border force officials would restore order completely. A statement released by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection late on Monday night says the situation in the centre “remains calm”.

The centre houses asylum seekers and people who are awaiting deportation because their Australian visas were cancelled. Many New Zealand citizens whose visas were cancelled under a recent toughening of deportation laws are also on the island.

One unnamed detainee told Radio NZ on Monday that he fears a heavy-handed response from Serco guards who run the facility. He was concerned they would use teargas and rubber bullets.

Another detainee, identified only as Peter, told ABC radio on Tuesday morning he had seen police use heavy-handed tactics.

“They fired tear gas and rubber bullets into the compound. They advanced into the compound,” he said.

Dutton had not been briefed on the use of rubber bullets in the detention centre, but did not rule out their use if police deemed it necessary.

“The Australian federal police response unit is a very professional one, and they will make judgments according to operational needs and they will respond to the threat according to their training and the law. So they’ll respond in the appropriate way,” he said.

He made similar assertions when asked about deploying the riot squad if the disturbance continued.

“Officers on the ground have obviously deemed the threat level and they have responded accordingly, so the operation’s under way at the moment; the Australian federal police will assist the Serco guards in restoring order,” Dutton replied.

The opposition spokesman on immigration, Richard Marles, said Dutton needed to commit to the safety of staff and detainees after the unrest.

“If we’re really talking about a situation that got to the point of using rubber bullets, then we absolutely need to have an explanation from the minister about how events have got to this point in the first place,” he said on Tuesday. “We need to have an explanation from the minister on how he intends to provide an assurance to the Australian people that everyone concerned here is safe.”

Refugee advocates have criticised Serco’s management of the facility.

“The government talks about ‘restoring order’ in the centre, but restoring order to the riot police and Serco’s emergency response team will only mean a return of the brutal rule of force inside the detention centre that led to the explosion on Christmas Island,” said Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition.

“The ‘behavioural management’ regime inside Christmas Island is reminiscent of the behaviour familiar in Guantanomo Bay. It relies on solitary confinement, 24-hour surveillance, denial of access to a phone or the internet, and systemic force, reprisals and beatings by the Serco guards of anyone who they consider steps out of line.

“Christmas Island is being used as the punishment centre of the government’s detention regime. People are arbitrarily moved there as a punitive measure. It is much worse than jail.

“There is no reason for the asylum seekers to be there. They have committed no crime.”

The unrest on the island began on Sunday, after the body of an Iranian-Kurdish man, Fazel Chegeni, was found at the bottom of a cliff. Chegeni, who had been found to be a genuine refugee, had escaped from the centre on Saturday night.

A coronial inquiry is under way, although Dutton told question time on Monday that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding Chegeni’s death.

Chegeni and three other detainees were jailed for six months for assaulting a fellow asylum seeker in Curtin detention centre in 2011. The sentence, handed down by Perth magistrate, Barbara Lane, was later found to be “manifestly excessive”.

Chegeni was deemed to be stateless because he was not recognised as a citizen by Iran. He had arrived in Australia in 2011 from Afghanistan, and had tried to kill himself several times while in detention on Christmas Island.

As at early October, the Christmas Island detention centre housed 285 people. Of those, 125 had had their visas cancelled, and 101 were asylum seekers who had arrived in Australia by boat or by plane. Another 57 were visa overstayers who were being sent home.

Dutton has admitted that the facility is being used to house hardened criminals more often than in the past.

“My judgment is that the population on Christmas Island detention centre will include increasingly people with significant criminal history,” he said in October.

The federal government will look at security arrangements after this week’s disturbance.

“There’ll be a review after this incident to see if anything further is required,” Dutton said. “If it is required, the government will respond accordingly.”

He has vowed to crack down on anyone who has broken the law.

“We’re not going to tolerate destruction of commonwealth property and those people that have undertaken that sort of behaviour will face the full force of the law,” he said.

Marles said the security concerns for asylum seekers and hardened criminals such as bikie gang members who have had their visas cancelled is a “different kettle of fish”.

Labor will be briefed by the government later on Tuesday.

“What is important that we need to understand is how everybody is being housed within the Christmas Island facility,” Marles said. “I think it’s fair to say that this isn’t a policy that has been carried out particularly in the open.”