VIETNAMESE in Whitehead detention centre were called forward to volunteer to go home and when they refused, tear-gas was lobbed at them, according to the field director of the Save the Children Fund, Philip Barker.
Mr Barker said his staff and contacts who saw the centre's Section 7 after the raid described it as a ''war zone'', and he accused the Government of tolerating violence against children.
He made the same accusation during a raid in May 1990 in which children were photographed being searched by fully equipped riot police.
''Almost four years to the day later, they do almost the exact same thing. They seem to be tolerating violence to Vietnamese children,'' he said.
In neither case were the Vietnamese told why they were being moved and this frightened them because they feared they were being taken away for forced repatriation, he said.
Mr Barker said people in the camps told him the police arrived at 6 am and asked all those waiting to return voluntarily to Vietnam to step forward. Other volunteers were then asked to come out.