KEY POINTS:
One of three Villawood detainees who spent the night on the roof of the Sydney detention centre says he is injured and requires surgery.
Speaking from the rooftop by mobile phone, New Zealander Montana Kelly, 27, told AAP he had "seriously sliced" his hand running through razor wire last night to get onto the roof.
Mr Kelly, his cousin Bruce Ngaromoa, 32, also from New Zealand, and 30-year-old Vietnamese man Van Nguyn climbed onto the roof to protest over conditions at the detention centre.
Mr Kelly, who has been in the centre since May awaiting deportation after serving a sentence for armed robbery, said the protest was sparked by the cancellation of inmates' visits to family outside the centre.
"That's only one issue. There is a lot of issues here," Mr Kelly said.
"The main thing we are protesting about is the well-being of the inmates. They treat people like crap out here and we need a change."
Mr Kelly said Mr Ngaromoa was also injured, having sliced his finger to the bone.
"When we got up here last night we just held our cuts together as best we could hoping it would start to mend," he said.
Despite the injuries, a spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said there were no plans to force an end to the protest.
"We have asked them to come down voluntarily," the spokeswoman said.
"We will wait until they actually come down before we look at (the cause of the protest) in light of the event."
Mr Kelly said health services in the centre were poor and needed addressing urgently.
"We are asking the department ... 'Where's your heart?'," he said.
"We are going to stay up here until someone can actually do something about making a change in this place."
Mr Kelly said many other detainees were on a hunger strike in support of the protesting trio.
He said the decision to cancel home visits "came out of nowhere" several months after one inmate "did a runner".
The minister's spokeswoman said detainees whose visas had been cancelled on character grounds would be banned from home visits for four weeks, except in exceptional circumstances, while a security review took place.
"In light of a detainee absconding on an excursion we have introduced this measure," she said.
After spending a night in the rain, the trio have been thrown clean, dry clothes by other inmates and Kelly said they had a supply of drinking water.
- AAP
