Calls for inquiry after second death in six weeks at Villawood detention centre

A refugee advocacy body is calling for an independent inquiry into immigration detention after a second death in six weeks in a Sydney detention centre.

Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in New South Wales. Source: SBS News

A second death at Villawood Detention Centre in Sydney has sparked a call for an independent inquiry into immigration detention.

A detainee died at the facility in the city's west on Monday evening, six weeks after a Sierra Leone man died in unsuspicious circumstances.

Australian Border Force confirmed the latest death but did not release further details apart from saying the matter had been referred to the NSW coroner and other "appropriate agencies".

"We express our condolences to the man's family and friends," a spokesman said in a statement on Monday.

"As this matter will be subject to further investigation, it would not be appropriate to comment further."'

Refugee advocate Ian Rintoul said the man was an Iraqi asylum seeker whose body was found about 6pm in his room in the La Trobe compound.

Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition. Source: AAP

"We need an urgent, independent inquiry into immigration detention," the spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition said in a statement.

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