A senior executive at security firm G4S has confirmed some company staff were likely involved in violent riots at the Manus Island detention centre in which an asylum seeker died.
An inquiry into the fatal riots in February has been told G4S officers entered part of the facility with Papua New Guinea police and locals where Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati was beaten to death.
G4S regional managing director Darren Boyd said the violence escalated quickly when PNG police stormed the compound and began firing their weapons, and it's likely G4S staff were amongst the fray.
"Our own inquiries have shown that some G4S staff entered Mike compound without authority and were likely involved in the fighting which took place there," he told a Senate inquiry on Tuesday.
"What has been difficult to establish is the identities of those individuals and of who did what to whom."
The company vowed it would not tolerate any wrongdoing by its staff, and was cooperating fully with PNG authorities as they investigate the circumstances around Mr Barati's death on February 18.
An independent review into the riot has found a PNG man employed by The Salvation Army led the brutal beating that killed Mr Barati, whose head was crushed by a rock.
G4S first alerted the immigration department in mid 2013 that it was concerned about security at the centre, and that reinforced fencing was needed to protect detainees and prevent breakouts.
Mr Boyd said that by the time the riot broke out, none of their recommended security measures had been implemented.
"In our view had proper security infrastructure been in place ... then the severe injuries and the fatality would probably have not have occurred," he said.
The other key factor that prompted the riots was mounting anxiety over the lack of refugee claims being processed by the authorities, he added.
The inquiry was told "all hell broke loose" when PNG police broke through the outer fence and began firing guns, apparently in response to racist taunts and threats being hurled by detainees.
Mr Boyd repeated the company's claim that at no stage did G4S request or invite PNG police to enter the centre to deal with the riots.
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