Manus Island riot: G4S security briefing recording contradicts claims PNG police actions were 'unexpected'

Updated

A recording of a G4S security briefing on Manus Island contradicts claims the company has made to both a Senate inquiry and an independent review of the violence which left one man dead and 62 injured in February.

The recording was made on January 30, almost three weeks before the violence that left Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati, 23, dead.

In it, G4S acting regional manager on Manus Island, John McCaffery, is heard to say that in the event of a violent incident there is a plan in place to hand over control of a compound to PNG's notorious police mobile squad.

"We have got a plan in place if there is an incident. We would hand over an incident if we couldn't control it ourselves to the mobile squad ... and when they've done that, we'd take it back over again", Mr McCaffery said.

Yesterday, an independent review of the violence by Robert Cornall was released by Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, with a Salvation Army worker identified as allegedly leading the deadly February incident.

The review also confirmed that the mobile squad entered a compound and started shooting.

G4S says at no time were PNG police invited into the centre during the deadly February riot.

A company spokesman says the fact that the fences were pushed down from the outside is proof that the police were not asked to come into the centre by G4S and that parties outside the centre forced their way into it.

In its submission to the review, G4S said the actions of PNG's mobile squad on February 17 were "unexpected and unforeseeable".

"The actions taken by the police to breach the perimeter fence and enter Mike Compound on the night of 17 February were unexpected and unforeseeable, and G4S had no means or authority to prevent police instigating such actions."

In its submission to the Senate Committee Inquiry into the events of February 16 and 18, G4S says:

"There is clear evidence that the violence [that] occurred on the night of 17 February occurred after locals and some centre staff, led by the PNG police mobile squad, breached fences of the transferee accommodation block at the centre known as Mike Compound."

In response to this story, G4S has released an email from John McCaffery sent to the Department of Immigration on February 10, in which he describes potential problems with using the PNG mobile squad to quell any unrest at the centre.

Last month, former G4S guards told the ABC's Four Corners program that they heard the order to hand control of Mike Compound over to the police.

Manus Island MP Ronnie Knight defended the mobile police squad's actions and use of firearms during the riot.

"When you've got a situation, when you've got a couple of hundred people rioting, that's what happens in Papua New Guinea," he said.

"They would not treat it any different than our people would have been treated, that's what they're trained to do, put down things hard."

The outspoken MP also downplayed the racial divisions between locals and detainees, which the report said led to the violence.

"The racial division is between a certain group of Iranian people who have a condescending view and an overbearing look on the difference between a black and a white skin, that has been going on since when they came," he said.

Everyone who worked there knew there was potential for things to blow up. It really was quite predictable. Rod St George

"At the moment I think that there's no problem there at all. There hasn't been much Papua New Guineans or Manusians allowed to work inside or around the campsite at the moment."

Mr Knight said G4S has to take the blame for the riot.

Rod St George, who worked as an occupational health and safety manager at the Manus Island centre for one month early last year, said the lack of training and ongoing tension at the centre was a "recipe for disaster".

He said there had been documented instances of self harm and violent altercations between PNG nationals and detainees.

"Everyone who worked there knew there was potential for things to blow up. It really was quite predictable," he told 774 ABC Melbourne.

"But all the warnings that were discussed at meetings with [the] Immigration Department were ignored."

Mr St George said Australian officials needed to take responsibility for the facility and investigating the riot.

"Anyone who knows anything about the centre would know that this is an Australian-run facility and PNG is simply doing what they're told to do," he said.

Imagery: Aerial view of Manus Island Regional Processing Centre taken on March 2, 2014. (DigitalGlobe)

Topics: refugees, immigration, government-and-politics, papua-new-guinea, australia

First posted