REFUGEES incarcerated at Harmondsworth Detention Centre began a hunger strike at the weekend after they were banned from watching a demonstration through their windows.

Over 200 activists were protesting outside the centre near Heathrow airport on Saturday, as part of a day of solidarity organised by direct-action group No Borders.

Chanting slogans such as “Stop detention, stop deportation” and “asylum rights are human rights,” the demonstrators demanded the closure of the notorious camp and an immediate end to the government’s “racist immigration politics.”

Samba band Rhythms of Resistance and socialist choir Raised Voices provided a musical background to speeches by campaigners from No-One Is Illegal and other groups.

Speakers warned that labelling some people “illegal” leaves them vulnerable to exploitation by ruthless bosses, as in the Morecambe Bay cockle-pickers’ tragedy, and undermines conditions for other workers.

Committee to Defend Asylum-Seekers spokesman George Binette said that the demo was the largest at the centre for several years.

But the UNISON official added: “It is disappointing that there’s an absence of any labour movement representation here, especially as the official stance of many trade unions is in support of asylum-seekers and migrant workers and against detention centres.

“This place is a shocking indictment of Blair’s Britain, not only because completely innocent people are being detained here but also because it is run by private companies for profit.”

Despite there being as many police as protesters, there were no arrests and the demo passed off peacefully.

About 30 activists were temporarily detained after assembling outside the designated “protest zone” and were released more than an hour later — only after they had each been photographed and had their identities checked.

Bizarrely, one police officer told protesters that the demonstration was “upsetting” for refugees at the centre.

However, detainees soon contacted the demo via telephone, insisting that they were “enormously encouraged” by the protest.

They also revealed that, having been forcibly denied access to their rooms to see the demonstration, the inmates were locked in another part of the building.

In response, they have decided to go on hunger strike for one week.