Almost 1000 “use of force” incidents were recorded at Maribyrnong immigration detention centre in the 12 months to July last year.
Data shows guards at Maribyrnong used force or restrained and handcuffed asylum-seekers and detainees on 958 occasions – almost double the next-highest rate for detention centres in Australia.
Figures obtained under freedom of information laws show the next highest rates were 523 at Sydney’s Villawood centre and 350 at Western Australia’s Yongah Hill.
Recorded incidents at Maribyrnong included the restraint of a female detainee who tried to disrupt a search of her rooms, and force used to stop detainees injuring each other and causing damage.
A Department of Immigration and Border Protection spokesman said some detention centres housed more detainees with violent and criminal histories, which “may result in local variations in the level of force required to maintain order”.
It may be required, he said, when moving risky detainees to use arm-lock holds or restraints such as handcuffs.
Maribyrnong is run on behalf of the federal government by private security firm Serco. It houses non-citizens due for deportation because of criminal convictions as well as asylum-seekers.
Figures released to a Senate inquiry in July revealed that on April 30 there were 448 people in Australian immigration detention centres who had been convicted of criminal offences. Four had been convicted of homicide or related offences, 70 of sexual assault and 165 of assault or other violent offences.
Refugee advocates are concerned that vulnerable people are often forced to share rooms with convicted criminals.
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre detention rights advocate Pamela Curr told Fairfax Media she knew of one young female asylum-seeker who had been sent from Maribyrnong to hospital for an operation and had been handcuffed to her hospital bed for two days.
Star Weekly reported last February that two guards at Maribyrnong were sacked after a string of attacks on detainees. Claims arose that physical assaults increased when Serco transferred ex-corrections managers from the prison system into the detention centre.
Footscray police were also called to a number of assaults and incidents at the Maribyrnong centre in March and April as gangs of criminals awaiting deportation set upon and threatened to kill refugees.
