Fed: Hunger striking asylum seekers lose consciousness

AAP General News (Australia)
12-14-2003
Fed: Hunger striking asylum seekers lose consciousness

CANBERRA, Dec 14 AAP - Asylum seekers on a hunger strike to protest their detention
on Nauru have been lapsing in and out of consciousness, with one man taken to hospital.

An Immigration Department spokesman said there were now 19 asylum seekers on the Pacific
island refusing to accept food or water.

Four Afghani men sewed their lips together on Wednesday, the same day as another five
began their hunger strike, but the Immigration Department spokesman could not say if the
man taken to hospital was one of the four who had taken the drastic action of sewing his
lips together.

"One person has been removed to hospital for treatment," he said.

No more details about the man's health were available.

Rural Australians for Refugees spokeswoman Elaine Smith said some of asylum seekers
were losing consciousness and were being fed intravenously.

"Some of them are lapsing in and out of consciousness and the doctors do give them
fluids and that does restore them to some extent," she told Sky News Australia.

"The situation is serious for most of them, I imagine."

Ms Smith said the asylum seekers had told her via email they would prefer to die than
remain in immigration detention.

"If you knew anything of their lives in places in Afghanistan you will know that they've
been facing these serious situations for a long time," she said.

"They've seen their fathers, brothers killed, they've seen family members tortured.

"By comparison, I guess the hunger strike is the lesser ... of what they have to face."

More than 280 asylum seekers, including 93 children, were being processed on Nauru
as part of the federal government's Pacific Solution.

AAP sm/cat/bwl

KEYWORD: DETENTION LEAD

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