Hunger strike man tells of failing health

As a hunger strike at Hong Kong's biggest immigration detention centre continues, one of the men taking part has told of his declining health after refusing meals for 37 days.

'If you saw our condition you would cry,' the man, a Pakistani whose asylum bid was rejected, told Raquel Amador, acting executive director of the Hong Kong Refugee Advice Centre, over the phone on Thursday from within Castle Peak Bay Immigration Centre in Tuen Mun. 'I find it hard to sit for a long time, and have to lie down,' he said.

He told Amador he would continue to strike, taking only milk tea and water, until he was released on bail.

The inmate, who said he began the strike on August 19, is one of five who are refusing meals while they demand their freedom from Hong Kong's largest immigration detention centre. All are believed to be current or former asylum seekers from India or Pakistan.

Run by the Immigration Department, the detention centre at Tuen Mun holds up to 400 inmates who have committed immigration, rather than criminal, offences such as overstaying their visas. They are also held there while awaiting deportation.

An Immigration Department spokesperson said all of the hunger-striking inmates had also eaten bread, despite refusing proper meals. The spokesperson said yesterday that the five protestors were in a satisfactory condition, although four of them were staying in the centre's medical bay.