Detainees end hunger strike

Fourteen illegal immigrants being detained at Safi Barracks and at Ta' Kandja yesterday ended a hunger strike they started on Monday.

The Eritrean and Ethiopian immigrants were protesting against the long time they had been held in detention since they landed in Malta - over a year and two months ago. They also want to know why their movements were restricted while another 68 of their co-nationals had been moved to an open centre which they could leave and return to at will.

Sources said the 14 immigrants ended their strike after a representative of the Refugee Commission in Malta called on them promising he would ask the prime minister why they were being segregated.

Some 80 Eritreans and Ethiopians at the Safi Barracks had ended a 10-day hunger strike on October 9 after they failed to persuade the authorities to let them out or else improve the conditions at the detention centres.

Two days before Christmas, as a sign of goodwill, the government transferred 68 Eritreans and Ethiopians who entered Malta illegally in March and July 2002 to an open centre.