African Immigrants in ’Israel’ on Mass Hunger Strike After Inhuman Conditions

Local Editor

Hundreds of African immigrants began a mass hunger strike on Monday to protest against their "inhuman and unlimited" detention at Holot facility in the occupied territories.

Approximately 1,000 Africans marched on Friday to the border and set up a camp to protest against their "inhuman and unlimited" detention at Holot facility, after "Israeli" police forcibly broke up a sit-in they were staging along the Egyptian border.

The demonstrators have said Holot is akin to prison and have also slammed what they said was "Israel's" failure to process their asylum requests.

Furthermore, they are calling on the UN refugee agency [UNHCR] to intervene to allow them to immigrate to a third country.

"Israel" opened Holot detention camp in the southern Negev [occupied al-Naqab] desert last year in 2013 as part of a crackdown on immigrants, with the facility open by day but locked down at night.

However, on Sunday, police and immigration officials violently broke up the border encampment and took the demonstrators to Saharonim, another detention camp for African immigrants, the demonstrators said in a statement.

"We have been taken to Saharonim prison. Some of us have injuries including to the face and limbs. In protest of this violence, and our ongoing imprisonment we have now started a hunger strike," it said.

"We call on UNHCR to find an urgent solution for this situation and to protect our rights as people who have come to "Israel" to seek asylum and shelter," it added.

Under legislation passed by parliament in December 2013, "Israel" can detain illegal immigrants for up to a year without trial in a move slammed by UNHCR which said the Zionist state could be in breach of international law.

The law was the latest in a series of measures aimed at cracking down on the numbers of Africans entering the country, which "Israel" says poses a threat to the state's Jewish character.

Sources: News Agencies, Edited by website team