More boat people give up hunger strike

THE NUMBER of boat people on hunger-strike in the Pefkos Hotel has dwindled from 10 to three since the new UNHCR Head of Liaison, Sharon Bernard, pledged to visit the 24 illegal immigrants at the hotel on Monday, one of them said yesterday.

Nihad Hage said by phone from the Limassol hotel that he had been able to persuade seven of the 10 hunger-strikers to end their protest fast after talking with Bernard, but that three of the fasters were holding out.

“They do not believe in promises of anybody,” Hage said. “They want to see a paper proving we are going to get freedom.”

The 10 began fasting on Tuesday, the same day they faxed a letter to the Ministries of Justice and Interior thanking the government for saving their lives last summer, but protesting against continued life under virtual house arrest since then.

Told of their hunger-strike, Bernard phoned them, said she would visit on Monday, and assured them she was urgently sending to Geneva appeals of the rejection of their refugee status applications by officers of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who visited Cyprus last year to screen the boat people.

The 24 were among 113 illegal immigrants rescued by a Cyprus naval patrol last June, sick and starving, from a Syrian-registered trawler off the Cyprus coast.

In December, 23 of the Pefkos residents – 10 Bangladeshis and 13 Kurds – won refugee status from the government on UNHCR recommendation.

Apart from them and the Pefkos 24, most of the original 113 boat people have been deported. It is not known how many others from the boat remain in police custody.

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