Australia's Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has warned the situation at the Manus Island detention centre remains volatile, after Papua New Guinea authorities resolved a stand-off between asylum seekers and the facility's operators.
Asylum seekers in Manus Island centre protesting against resettlement plans Photo: Supplied by Refugee Action Coalition
Security staff, including Australian personnel, moved on one of the compounds, Delta block, on Monday afternoon following a week of protests.
PNG has denied claims of confrontations between staff and the detainees and said no serious injuries were reported.
Mr Dutton backed the decision by PNG authorities to enter the compound, after a group of male asylum seekers barricaded themselves in on Friday.
He said claims by refugee advocates that detainees had been denied food and water were utter nonsense.
The Refugee Action Coalition earlier said 60 asylum seekers were in prison after security guards broke a barricaded compound at the Manus Island detention centre. Its advocates, who were in touch with asylum seekers within the centre, said the hunger strike in protest at resettlement on the Papua New Guinea island was continuing.
According to the ABC, a PNG government spokesman said security guards were involved, and that police were in attendance but stayed back and there were no serious injuries.
But refugee advocate Ian Rintoul said force was used and he had heard of a number of injuries.
He said more than 600 people in the detention centre remained on hunger strike.
Earlier the Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young called for restraint in the handling of the protests a year since the death of an Iranian asylum seeker during a hardline security response to riots at the centre.
An asylum seeker tries to reach for drinking water outside of the Manus Island compound. Photo: Supplied by Refugee Action Coalition
Mr Rintoul said the use of force confirmed the worst fears of the asylum seekers that they were not safe on Manus Island.
"We are extremely concerned for the safety of the asylum seekers taken from Delta Compound. Given the history of PNG police violence on Manus, there is an urgent need for independent supervision of those in police custody," he said.
"The attack on Delta Compound has resolved nothing, except increase the determination of the asylum seekers to continue their protest."
Earlier Mr Rintoul claimed the protestors were being deprived of water and forced to reach under a compound fence for bottles.
He said on Sunday afternoon a forklift moved in to remove the pallets holding the bottles, a Delta Compound had been without running water since Friday and asylum seekers had to catch rainwater to wash.
Mr Rintoul said the service provider Transfield had upped intimidation in Foxtrot compound which was occupied by around 40 members of the Emergency Response Team early Sunday evening.
Protests on Manus Island during the recent hunger strikes. Photo: Supplied
The Refugee Action Coalition said security guards, including Papua New Guinea locals, attacked peaceful protests at the Australian-run detention centre on Friday.
But the Papua New Guinea government has denied reports of a violent confrontation.
