Deportees declare hunger strike in German prison
Posted September 4th, 2007 by Indian-Muslim
Bueren, Germany, September 3, SPA–An unknown number of deportees in Germany's biggest detention facility for illegal immigrants have begun a hunger strike, according to a lobby group Monday, DPA reported.
Frank Gockel, chairman of the Society to Help People in Pre-Deportation Custody at Bueren, said 60 detainees had begun rejecting food in a mass protest at Germany's practice of detaining and deporting people who are unable to obtain legal immigration
status. The detention centre is sited at Bueren near the northern city of Paderborn.
Gockel said the inmates were also refusing to work and were declining orders as part of the protest. He described the inmates as mostly people who had sought German political asylum and were not believed, or people who had been caught working without permits.