Riotous Refugees or Systemic Injustice? A Sociological Examination of Riots in Australian Immigration Detention Centres

Abstract

This article draws on testimony from refugees formerly held in Australianimmigration detention centres who either participated in or witnessed riots indetention, alongside academic literature examining riots in a range of settings,to elucidate how and why riots happen in immigration detention. The articleoutlines a model of contextualizing and immediate preconditions for riots andthen uses this model to analyse a series of riots which occurred in Australianimmigration detention centres between 1999 and 2011. The author proposes thatconditions in immigration detention centres almost guarantee riots and thatwhile practices such as arbitrary use of solitary confinement and excessive useof force commonly act as the immediate triggers to riot episodes, the dailyregimen of detention produces the preconditions necessary for riots to occur.