Detainees at Christmas Island Detention Centre started rioting on Tuesday night, with footage appearing to show at least one building burning and a number of people up on the roof.
In one video of the incident shared on social media, a man is heard saying: "This is how frustrated people are".
"They are burning the roof. They are sick and tired of being treated like s***," he says.
"Arab people, white people, African people, they're sick and tired of Peter Dutton and Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister of Australia, they're treating us like a dog."
One detainee told SBS News a riot started with one person climbing the roof before others joined him, with many no longer able to "take indefinite cruelty".
More than 100 people are held at the centre.
The Australian Border Force (ABF) in a statement confirmed an operation was underway "to restore order" after a disturbance at the island's North West Point Immigration Detention Centre.
"A small number of detainees caused some damage to the facility overnight and continue to be non-compliant," the ABF statement said on Wednesday afternoon.
"The centre remains secure and the majority of detainees are not involved. There are no reports of any injuries to staff or detainees."
The ABF says detainees at the centre consist of "unlawful non-citizens who have no entitlement to remain in the Australia due to convictions for crimes such as assault, sexual offences, drugs and other violent offences".
The Refugee Action Coalition Sydney has heard that at least two compounds have been set alight, with the extent of the damage unknown.
"While the immediate cause of the fires is not known, tensions have been building inside the detention centre over the past few weeks, and escalated dramatically over the last 24 hours," an update on the organisation's website said on Wednesday.
The coalition said causes of frustration included the amount of time detainees spend locked in their compounds each day, access to property, the price of cigarettes, and the lack of proper access to a mobile network in the centre.
"I think the overriding issue is the fact that people - whether they're called unlawful citizens - most of the people have got families in the Australian community, they've got connections in the Australian community," spokesman Ian Rintoul told SBS News.
"As far as the judicial system is concerned, they've done their time for any crime, they've fulfilled the sentence. Some people aren't in that way, they're just there because of character concerns from the minister.
"In a normal situation they would be free to live in the community."
George Newhouse from the National Justice Project also said tension had been building in the facility.
"This latest incident is the result of isolation and up to 22 hours of being locked inside compounds with no access to green space and miserable conditions of detention," Mr Newhouse said in a statement.
"These harsh and solitary conditions are having an effect on the mental health and welfare of detainees."
