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Tamils injured in detention centre riot

A riot involving more than 100 people has left three injured at the Scherger Immigration Detention Centre at Weipa on the Cape York Peninsula, Australia.

Amongst those injured was a Tamil man, who was left with a suspected broken nose and teeth, thought to have been inflicted by a guard at the centre.

Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Collective told reporters that the man was hit by the guard, who allegedly provked the incident, whilst waiting to use the internet.


"We are not sure if the guard actually punched him or smashed the door into his face.


"[There were] broken teeth and there was a lot of blood. It was feared he had broken his nose and this particular guard had been involved in a couple of incidents earlier on."


"There's no doubt the guard started it from the Tamil side of things and hearing what happened."


"Asylum seekers are not criminals and Serco guards are not prison officers and in any case there's no place for that kind of behaviour.

Rintoul stated that more than 700 people are in detention at the Scherger detention centre, which has a regular operational capacity of 300.


"Many of the Tamils have been in there 18 months and some of them over two years in detention waiting for answers.


Some of them have been found to be refugees many, many months ago and they're still waiting to get security clearance."

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