By Alexandra Fisher, ABC
Vietnamese asylum seekers at the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre say members of the group were bashed and injured during a targeted attack on Friday night.
Vietnamese detainees at the Christmas Island detention centre say up to 30 people were beaten in an attack on Friday night. Getty Images: Scott Fisher
Three separate sources told the ABC they were contacted by Vietnamese asylum seekers on the island, who said they were mobbed by a group of Iranian detainees.
The Darwin Asylum Seeker Support and Advocacy Network (DASSAN) said two Vietnamese asylum seekers from the centre contacted it in separate private messages on Facebook the next day.
One of the asylum seekers told the advocacy group up to 30 people were beaten.
“Somebody [was] hurt in [the] head, somebody hurt in [the] arms and legs, in the back,” the asylum seeker wrote in the Facebook post.
The refugee advocate asked about the response of Serco, the company responsible for security at detention centres.
“They did not care what happened with us. The police, they [said] ‘If Serco agreed they [would] be going in detention and checking’, but Serco did not agree,” the asylum seeker wrote.
A Vietnamese advocate in Australia – who did not want to be identified – said one of the Vietnamese detainees called him around midnight.
“He mentioned very clearly that the Iranian people came [during dinner time] and they smashed up all the tables, messed up the food and chased them,” he said.
“They said they beat them very hard.”
A refugee advocate and Vietnamese man from Perth, Nam Pham, told the ABC he was called on the Saturday morning by a Vietnamese asylum seeker at the facility.
“He contacted me reporting the violence in the compound next to him and many of his friends had been injured, beaten up by the other asylum seekers at the centre,” Mr Pham said.
“He said he tried to contact the police, but he said he either couldn’t get through or they couldn’t come in to help.
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