Local police have been mobilized and are preparing an assault on the detention center to stop the riots, the Sydney-based bureau of the British newspaper reported.
At the moment there is no water supply in the Delta compound, where the protesters concentrated, and the detainees have not received any food in two days, Guardian Australia reported.
Meanwhile, the number of people taking part in a hunger strike is growing. At the moment more than 700 people, or more than two-thirds of the center’s population, are refusing food. Up to 200 detainees have been sent to medical establishments on the Island as the immigration center's hospital is overwhelmed with patients, the news outlet reported.
Last week, Guardian Australia also reported that an asylum seeker at the Manus Island detention center swallowed three razor blades in protest at the duration of his detention, while 15 more detainees sewed their lips shut.
The asylum seekers want the Australian government to provide them with refugee status or hand their cases over to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They are afraid of being forcibly resettled in the local community in Papua New Guinea, insisting that the local population is hostile toward immigrants. Additionally, they want the authorities to repair broken water pumps at the detention center, according to earlier media reports.
A previous hunger strike at the detention center turned into a riot in February 2014, which resulted in the death of one man, who was allegedly attacked by a local warden, while a further 70 people sustained injuries.
Over 20,000 asylum seekers arrived in Australia by boat in 2013, according to the Refugee Council of Australia. Most of them, who traveled via Indonesia, originate from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Sri Lanka.
