Sri Lankan detainees go on hunger strike in Harmondsworth
transmitter | 23.07.2007 18:06 | Migration | Repression | Birmingham | London
Earlier this month, two Tamil Jaffna residents, who had sought refugee status in Britain after fleeing the conflict in the North, started an indefinite hunger strike as their asylum applications were turned down and they were subsequently interned in Harmondsworth detention centre near Heathrow. By Saturday, however, a further 27 Sri Lankan Tamils at the same detention centre joined in the strike.
According to the detention centre's management, the two Sri Lankans who started the hunger strike on July 9 have not had water or food and their health is deteriorating.
According to the Daily Mirror, another Tamil refugee who was deported from London last week was arrested in Sri Lanka and is being detained in Negombo. CID sources at the Katunayake international airport confirmed to the Daily Mirror that the immigrant was arrested on the 18th of this month and placed under detention in Negombo.
Meanwhile, the Asian Tribune reported that immigration authorities in Thailand continued to remain tight-lipped about the plight of a group of Sri Lankans languishing at an immigration detention centre and in other prisons in Thailand. The Bangkok based UNHCR's Public Relations and Information Officer for Asia, Kitty McKinsey told Asian Tribune, that they had no access to those Sri Lankans detained in the detention centres.
transmitter
Additions
'Troubles' at three detention centres
23.07.2007 21:56
one of noborders
69 people reported on hunger strike
24.07.2007 11:39
The numbers of Sri Lankans on hunger strike are as follows:
Haslar 10
Harmondsworth 28
Oakington 23
Tynsley 8
Numbers are provisional. Numbers obtained by the National Coalition of Anti Deportation Campaigns.
nb
In Haslar As Well - where the hungerstrikers have issued this statement
24.07.2007 20:48
one of noborders
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