Asylum seekers brought to Australia for medical care have been forcibly removed from the Brisbane hotel where they have endured long-term detention, supporters say.
Protesters have once more descended on the Kangaroo Point Central Hotel and Apartments, where about 19 men once held on Nauru and Manus Island have been held for well over a year.
The removal of the men comes amid a bitter dispute involving the owners of the hotel, the lessor, and sub-lessor Serco, says Lou Menniti, whose family trusts own the Kangaroo Point hotel.
Serco helps run immigration detention sites for the federal government.
Mr Menniti told AAP his family exerted its right to reclaim possession of the hotel precinct earlier on Friday when he arrived with five security guards who "jumped through windows and over fences" to retake the property.
Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition says there were dramatic scenes as two mini-vans took the men from the hotel to the Brisbane Immigration Detention Centre.
He said police smashed a car window and forced activists from a car that tried to block the vans' path.
The Kangaroo Point property has seen dozens of protests in the past year by activists demanding the release of all former offshore detainees.
The federal government has in recent months released many medevac asylum seekers, including from the Brisbane hotel.
But Mr Rintoul said the government refused to let the last 19 men go.
"We don't want any more transfers between detention centres. Everyone should be released," he said on Friday.
Dane De Leon has long been involved in protests at Kangaroo Point and described the scenes as the men were removed.
"There was so many cops, there were a couple of paddy wagons and a few of the riot squad there. The Serco guys and the cops were working together just trying to aggressively push the protesters off, telling us to go away," she told AAP.
"Some of the men were quiet and just looking at the ground. Some who were resisting were being held by Serco guards."
AAP has sought comment from police.
