Mass breakout at Australian detention center

The Woomera Detention Center has been the scene of numerous riots and protests

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Twenty-nine detainees are still at large after a mass overnight breakout from a South Australian detention center.

A group of 34 broke out when activists staged a daring raid on the Woomera Detention Center late on Thursday night.

Five of the migrants have been re-detained.

"This is a deliberate, organized breakout by people who have been in contact with detainees," Australia's Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said on local radio.

Ruddock said 15 asylum seekers were involved in the breakout, another 19 taking advantage of the confusion to escape.

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Ruddock said the breakout occurred when members of an asylum seeker support group used a car to break down the fence surrounding the center and helped the detainees to escape, The Associated Press reports.

The protestors had gathered outside the former military facility to support a hunger strike by inmates.

The detainees escaped into the surrounding outback where they face harsh conditions. Woomera is located in the desert about 500 kilometers (300 miles) north of the South Australian state capital of Adelaide.

Police roadblocks have been set up around the area as the search for the escapees continues.

Earlier this month a United Nations group criticized conditions inside Australia's detention camps, saying detainees "live day-in and day-out in agonizing uncertainty."

The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention visited Australia for two weeks in June to assess whether the detention camps were in breach of the U.N.'s international covenant on civil and political rights.

Working group chairman Justice Louis Joinet described conditions in the Woomera camp as "dramatic."

Woomera, the largest of Australia's five onshore detention sites, has been the scene of numerous riots and protests. Inmates recently went on a two-week hunger strike and sewed their lips together.