By IRNA,
London : Some 30 asylum seekers led by Iraqi Kurds started their second week on hunger strike Saturday at Campsfield House detention centre near Oxford, central England, in protest against being deported back to Iraq.
In a statement, the Iraqi Kurds said they were on hunger strike because they are being treated like criminals, and separated from their families.
It was “very important for us” that the government allowed the courts to examine the detainees’ cases again, because Iraq was “the most dangerous country in the world,” one of the detainees, Fazzel Abdul Ahmed was quoted saying by the BBC.
Other asylum seekers from around the world joined in the hunger strike last week at the controversial centre, which has been subjected to number of disturbances including escapes, a rooftop protest and a campaign to have it shut since it opened in 1993.
The privately-run centre, which accommodates some 200 asylum seekers and foreign prisoners, is among ten such camps set up in the UK to hold certain groups of unauthorized arrivals until a decision is made by immigration authorities.
A spokesperson for the UK Border Agency boasted last week that the UK had deported the highest ever number of foreign lawbreakers, up by 80 percent and said it remained “committed to removing those who have no legal basis to stay in the UK.”
A ‘Coalition Against Deportations to Iraq,’ set up since the UK started forceful repatriations back to Iraq in 2005, holds regular protests in London.