22 people are being questioned by police in Australia following a riot involving some 100 people on Wednesday night at an immigration detention centre in Sydney (photo, from bbcimg.co.uk).
Nine buildings of Villawood detention centre were burned during the riot.
According to the government asylum-seekers who had had their visa applications rejected started the riot.
The people who are being questioned have been moved from the detention centre to a prison, as part of a criminal probe into the riot, said immigration officials.
“This sort of behaviour is absolutely unacceptable,” Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan said. “They will certainly feel the full force of the law.”
Villawood detention centre holds people arriving in Australia by boat in order to seek asylum as well as people already on the mainland who have violated their visas or had them cancelled.
Wednesday night’s riot was the latest in a series of protests and suicides in the country’s immigration detention facilities which are overcrowded due to the number of irregular maritime arrivals in recent months.
Last month detainees at Autralia’s offshore detention centre on Christmas Island set buildings on fire, and riot police were flown to the island.
In order to ease crowding in detention centres, the Australian government announced 1,900 new beds for asylum seekers.
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