New protests reportedly began at Darwin’s Wickham Point detention centre on Thursday, just a day after police and paramedics were called out in response to up to 50 detainees allegedly breaking down a fence to demonstrate against transfers to Nauru.
Unconfirmed reports, including from people inside the centre, said a number of detainees went on to the roof of a building inside the family compound of the centre.
Detainees have been protesting against transfers – which usually take place on Thursday nights – of people, including families, to Nauru.
One told Guardian Australia the people on the roof on Thursday wanted to see an immigration manager to ask “why they intended to send back a pregnant woman to Nauru”.
NT police were unable to confirm if they had been called out to the centre on Thursday afternoon.
Guardian Australia and other media were contacted on Wednesday by people inside the centre to say there had been numerous acts of self-harm by detainees, including a woman who is five months pregnant. They said a large group of detainees had broken through a fence between a section of the family compound and an interview area where some people were being held.
The group then sat on the ground in protest against what they believed were impending transfers of at least two families, including the pregnant woman and her husband, to Nauru, one source said.
Photos obtained by the ABC showed overturned bins and dozens of people gathered at a fence.
The department of immigration disputed the detainees’ claims and said there was never any scheduled transfer of a pregnant woman.
A spokesman for the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, told ABC local radio earlier the disturbance had been resolved on Wednesday night.
“There was minor property damage and there were no injuries to staff or detainees. Reports attributed to refugee advocacy groups are wildly exaggerated and inaccurate.”
Earlier on Thursday the Greens and asylum seeker advocates called on the government to halt transfers to Nauru until recommendations from the Moss review (into allegations of sexual and physical assualts on Nauru) and Cornall review (into the death of Reza Barati on Manus Island) were acted on.
A spokeswoman for NT police told Guardian Australia that police attended Wickham Point at the request of security engaged by the department of immigration.
She said the “Disturbance at location was not to a level that required a handover to police, so police left at approx 6pm”.
