Ali Jaffari, the man who set himself on fire inside the Yongah Hill immigration detention centre east of Perth on Tuesday night, has died in hospital.

Jaffari, who had previously been on suicide watch after earlier serious attempts on his life last month, reportedly wrapped himself in a bed sheet and soaked himself in an unknown accelerant before setting himself on fire.

He sustained burns to up to 90% of his body, sources told Guardian Australia. Two guards who ran to his aid suffered minor injuries trying to put out the flames.

Jaffari was an ethnic Hazara from Afghanistan. He came to Australia by boat in 2010 and was granted refugee status.

In 2014 Jafarri pleaded guilty in the Victorian county court to one charge of accessing child pornography material using a carriage service. He had been viewing sexual images of teenage boys and girls on his laptop at the St Kilda public library.

His permanent protection visa had been cancelled by the then immigration minister, Scott Morrison, after he had been previously convicted of six counts of an indecent act with a child.

Jaffari was re-detained this year under section 501 of the Migration Act which allows the immigration minister to revoke a visa if the minister reasonably suspects the person fails Australia’s “character test”.

The character test includes a provision for cancelling a visa if a person is convicted of a sexual offence involving a child.



In sentencing Jaffari for the online offences in 2014, judge Jane Patrick noted he faced a future of indefinite detention.



His visa to live in Australia had been revoked, but he could not be refouled to Afghanistan because he faced a “well-founded fear of persecution” there.

“This is one of the most difficult situations as a sentencing judge I have faced,” she said. Jaffari had “a significant lack of insight” into his offending.

Care of detainees at Yongah Hill has come under intense scrutiny in recent months after a brawl involving up to 50 detainees in which five guards were injured.

Three weeks after the violence, a 27-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who was attacked was found dead in his room.

Police are investigating the death of Mohammad Nasim Najafi, but a department statement said there was “no indication of suicide or suspicious circumstances”.



Significant numbers of staff have left Yongah Hill in recent months, and some roles have been abolished, sources have told Guardian Australia.

Ian Rintoul, a spokesman for the refugee action coalition, said care at Yongah Hill was clearly inadequate.

“It is astonishing that a person with this man’s history of attempted suicide was not under closer observation,” he said. “That he was able to obtain the materials to self-immolate is a clear and catastrophic failure.”

Rintoul said Jaffari should have been receiving proper treatment for his mental health issues, rather than “being punitively held in indefinite detention”.

The Department of Immigration and Border Protection has said the incident would be thoroughly investigated.