Week-long hunger strike set to go on

The indefinite hunger strike being staged by 23 illegal immigrants at the government's closed centre in Hal Far enters its eighth day this morning with the immigrants set to continue fasting in protest at their detention.

By yesterday, a total of four immigrants had been taken to hospital due to their state of health - two from Mali, one from Libya and one from Iraq.

One of the hospitalised immigrants from Mali has been in detention for 23 months. He refused intravenous drips and was returned to Hal Far. His compatriot and the Iraqi immigrant had also refused the drips.

A spokesman for the immigrants yesterday told The Times that the residents on hunger strike, who hailed from Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Palestine and Morocco, included two 17-year-old lads.

An immigrant from Palestine was a diabetic and although he had continued to take his insulin he was not eating. Another immigrant on hunger strike suffers from heart problems.

"We are not criminals... Even criminals know when they are due to get out of prison but we do not know when we are getting out of here," the spokesman said.

He pointed out that some of the strikers had been in detention for 23 months. All of them, he said, had applied for refugee status but their applications had been rejected. They were appealing the decision.

While some of the immigrants arrived in Malta by boat, others flew in legally but overstayed and asked to be given refugee status when they were rounded up by the police.

The spokesman said these people could not return to their countries, which they had left for several reasons including war, religious beliefs and ethnic issues.

"We would be killed if we were to return home," he said.

He said the 23 immigrants had written a letter which they gave to the police to pass on to the Commissioner for Refugees.

The spokesman said that if freed they had no intention of staying on in Malta but would leave to join relatives in other countries.

He said that although there were more than 90 people in detention at Hal Far, the majority of them were Somalis, who were usually given humanitarian protection within a month of their arrival in Malta.