Guards Assault Australian Migrant Detention Center to End Week-Long Riots

MOSCOW, January 19 (Sputnik) — Guards of the Australian detention center for undocumented immigrants on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, have staged an assault on its occupants to end week-long riots in the facility, Guardian Australia said Monday.

As a result of the raid, 30 people believed to be leaders of the protest were arrested, the newspaper reported, citing a witness. Some of arrested will be taken to Chauka, an isolation unit on the island.

The guards attacked two compounds where the detainees barricaded themselves since Friday. Delta, one of the two compounds, has been without water for two days, according to the newspaper.

The Manus Island Regional Processing Center, used by Australia to detain undocumented immigrants, is located in Papua New Guinea, but is operated by a private company on behalf of the Australian government.

The riots, which began as a hunger strike, started on the island a week ago. The asylum seekers are demanding the Australian government to either give them refugee status or hand over their cases to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They said they were afraid of being forcibly resettled in Papua New Guinea's local community, insisting that the local population was hostile toward immigrants.

One of the asylum seekers at the detention center reportedly swallowed three razor blades to protest the duration of his detention, while 15 more detainees sewed their lips shut.

A previous hunger strike at the detention center turned into a riot in February 2014, resulting in the death of one man, allegedly attacked by a local warden. An additional 70 people were injured.

Over 20,000 asylum seekers arrived in Australia by boat in 2013, according to the Refugee Council of Australia. Most of them, traveling via Indonesia, are from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Sri Lanka.