BY SARAH STEPHEN
In a dawn raid on May 26, state and federal police, immigration officials and Australasian Correctional Management staff descended on the Port Hedland immigration detention centre to seize and remove detainees involved in a May 11 protest inside the camp.
There is still no indication of what the detainees will be charged with, or whether they have been given access to legal advice. Even if charges are not laid, they will likely be moved to another camp, to break up their efforts to organise.
The immigration department has confirmed that children are being assessed for removal into state or foster care.
The May 11 protest was the latest in an escalating series of detainee protests against the conditions and treatment of asylum seekers in Australia's refugee detention centres.
The situation in the camps is typically shrouded in secrecy, and following the incident, centre authorities and the federal government have attempted to stop information leaking out, making it impossible to verify what actually happened.
What is clear is that both the anger of the detainees and the willingness of authorities to brutally put down protest is increasing; the Port Hedland action was the second time that tear gas has been used inside a camp.
Immigration minister Philip Ruddock's official version is that detainees rioted because of a "misunderstanding", and that it was simply one of many attempts by those inside to "intimidate" the government and detention centre officials into quicker processing of their claims for refugee status.
Ruddock told the Australian on May 14, "They [the protesters] believe that if they put enough pressure on us they will be freed. Nothing could be further from the truth."
However, the Melbourne Age reported that the trigger for the riot was the beating of a 15-year-old Iranian asylum seeker, who allegedly resisted when he and four others were taken to the police lock-up in Port Hedland without charge.
Ruddock has denied claims that anyone was beaten. He has also refused to allow any media access to Port Hedland, and those contacting the detention centre have been unable to speak with those inside.
Kobra Bahrami, from the International Federation of Iranian Refugees, told Green Left Weekly of her attempts to find out what has been happening in Port Hedland.
"I have been trying to call Port Hedland for days, but each time I've been told that the phone is broken, that the line is down", she said. "So I am basing my assumptions on information I gathered from speaking to people before May 11."
"I know of four asylum seekers who were very active in detention, who did interviews with newspaper reporters and Amnesty International", she explained. "ACM decided to move them to Woomera, despite their requests not to be moved. Four people were injured, and six arrested, in the outbreak which followed, and these people have been moved to another centre."
She also recounted how police have been visiting the homes of refugee advocates in Sydney, "questioning us about the protests, asking us if we know anything about them, whether we have helped to organise them".
Workers Online, the web newspaper of the NSW Labor Council, has run a report claiming that the refugees' riot was sparked by strike action over the amount they were being paid to help maintain the privately owned facility.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union's Amanda Perkins said that prior to the riots, the refugees took industrial action over pay rates of just $10 for an eight hour day. Australasian Correctional Management offers work for a range of kitchen and cleaning duties to the detainees, most of whom have arrived in Australia with no money whatsoever.
The industrial action called for an increase in pay to $20 per day, plus a transparent rostering system so that all who wanted had the opportunity to get paid work.
Perkins said detainees were also incensed about the exorbitant costs charged at the centre's stores, where milk costs $5 per litre, cigarettes $14 a pack and shampoo $14 per bottle.