Immigration minister says there are reports that Papua New Guinea police fired shots twice during Monday’s disturbances

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

An independent review will investigate disturbances in Australia’s detention centre on Manus Island in which a man died and dozens of people were injured, the immigration minister said.

Scott Morrison said the secretary of his department, Martin Bowles, would “initiate a full review into this incident in the same way the former government commissioned previous reviews into incidents”.



He said there were reports that Papua New Guinea police had fired shots twice during the disturbances on Monday night.



Speaking at a press conference in Canberra on Tuesday afternoon, he did not rule out that people other than police might have entered the compound during the unrest.



Morrison said there was no indication the police had fired at asylum seekers or that an injured asylum seeker who was shot in the buttocks sustained the injury from police officers.



“There’s no suggestion they fired at asylum seekers,” he said. “Shots were reported to be fired.



“There’s no suggestion that those shots were the ones involved with the person that was shot in the buttocks.”

The shots were reportedly fired at 1am and 2am on Monday night.



One person who suffered a serious head injury had been transferred to Australia for medical treatment and three others were to be taken to a medical facility in Port Moresby, the minister said. A hundred extra security staff had been placed on standby.



Morrison rejected claims that the fence at the Manus Island compound had been pushed in from the outside. “That’s not consistent with the reports that I’ve received,” he said.



Ongoing protests at Manus Island escalated at the weekend, leading to widespread security breaches at the facility on Sunday night. Thirty-five asylum seekers escaped before being recaptured. On Monday night more serious unrest broke out and one asylum seeker died from a head injury.



“The news of a death is a great tragedy and our sympathies are extended to the transferee’s – that person’s – family and friends who would have been in the facility as well,” he said.



Refugee advocates and people inside the facility earlier contradicted Morrison’s statements that asylum seekers had caused the disturbance and broken out of the centre. They said PNG police and locals had entered the compound with weapons and attacked detainees.



“As far as we know no detainees breached the perimeter unless it was in the context of fleeing the detention centre,” Ian Rintoul, a spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition, told Guardian Australia.

Earlier on Tuesday the shadow immigration minister, Richard Marles, called for an inquiry into events at the Manus Island detention facility.

“It would appear that Manus Island is melting down under minister Morrison’s watch and we need to understand why that is happening,” he said.



“There needs to be a full inquiry … we cannot afford for the Manus Island facility to fall over.

“It more than anything else is the reason why we are seeing a reduction in the flow of boats from Indonesia.”



Morrison did not provide details about the scope of the review, but said it would be similar to those conducted in relation to previous incidents at detention centres. This means it will likely involve commissioning an independent officer not working within the department to review the disturbances.

