Christmas Island Detention Centre Reportedly 'Calm' After Riot Police Operation

‘Calm’ has been restored to the Christmas Island detention centre, following a reported riot incited by the death of an escaped detainee.

So says the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, who add that food service has begun at the compound and negotiations are underway with protesting detainees to provide medication to those who require it.

The Federal Government confirmed there had been a “stand-off” between authorities and detainees following the death of Fazal Chegeni, an Iranian Kurdish refugee who had attempted an escape on Sunday and reportedly died from injuries sustained in the process.

Though the Department of Immigration and Border Protection denies there had been a “large-scale riot”, riot police were nonetheless dispatched to support staff in the facility.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton blamed a "core group of criminals" for the uprising.

"The initial reports, early reports that I've received, [are] the officers were met with little resistance but nonetheless there's still a core group of criminals who are causing disruption and the Australian Federal Police and the Serco guards no doubt will deal with that threat in due course," he said.

The Refugee Action Coalition’s Ian Rintoul told ABC Sydney radio that he had been in contact with detainees over the weekend.

"The fences are down, Serco has abandoned the detention centre, there have been many fires set," he said.

"[Fazal Chegeni’s] death has triggered the tensions inside Christmas Island that have been building for many, many months.

"It is the most systematically brutal of the detention centres run in Australia now."

Fazal Chegeni arrived in Australia from Afghanistan in 2011 and was granted refugee status. However, he and three other men were later convicted of assaulting another detainee at the Curtin immigration detention centre. He had spent 532 days in detention at the time of sentencing.

Though the men all successfully appealed their sentences, the conviction was not overturned and it became unlikely Fazal Chegeni would pass the Minister of Immigration’s character test for a visa.

Fazal Chegeni’s death is being investigated by Australian Federal Police.

Update: The riots have reportedly come to a complete stop.

BREAKING: The Department of Immigration and Border Security says the riots on Christmas Island are over, facility brought under control

— ABC News (@abcnews) November 10, 2015