By Anthony O. Miller
NEARLY half the 34 illegal immigrants being held in the Old Famagusta Jail in Larnaca yesterday began a hunger-strike “to the death” to protest against their continued detention and conditions in the jail, one of the inmates told the Cyprus Mail.
Larnaca Police Chief Savvas Lardis and UNHCR Head of Liaison Office Sharon Bernard both confirmed that 16 of the 34 boat people in the Old Famagusta Jail had indeed begun refusing food yesterday.
The illegal immigrants say they are tired of being held as common criminals, some for as much as a year, despite not having been convicted of any offence.
One, an Iraqi Kurd who identified himself only as Siraf, said conditions in the lock-up were not good: “It is a very bad situation. We live like animals in a zoo. We eat, we sleep, that’s it. We need a solution,” he said.
Siraf, 26, who claimed he was a student, said things were so bad that he had tried to kill himself by “taking medicine” on April 9.
Bernard confirmed Siraf had attempted suicide, and that, following brief hospital treatment, was receiving psychiatric counselling in jail.
Savvas said all 34 men wanted to remain in Cyprus, something that could only occur if they were granted refugee status by the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees), and if Cyprus consented to accept them on the island.
Siraf said the 34 detainees could not go back home. He said he would be forced to join the army of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein if he were returned to Iraq, something he refuses to do.
He also claimed that none of the 34 illegal immigrants in detention had been contacted by the UNHCR, an assertion Bernard denied.
Bernard said she had a regular contact among the 34 – she declined to identify him – who usually kept her posted about conditions inside, although she admitted this person had not contacted her about the hunger- strike.
“They all have cases pending with us,” Bernard said. “We’re going to start the interviews after the first of May. I’m going to be doing them. We’re expecting another officer to come (to Cyprus) on mission” to help.
“We have not forgotten them,” Bernard said, adding she intended to go to Larnaca today to try to persuade the detainees to end their fast.
Besides the 34 men in the Old Famagusta Jail, there are 24 boat people who have been living under virtual house arrest in the Pefkos Hotel in Limassol since last June.
All 24 in the Pefkos and some of the 34 in Famagusta Jail were among 113 illegal migrants rescued from a leaky fishing boat in Cyprus waters last year. Most of the 113 have been deported. At least nine of the Pefkos detainees, all men from Ghana and Nigeria, want to go home, having failed to win refugee status.
Another 68 boat people are being held on the British Base at Episkopi, following their landing on the shores of the Base last Autumn from an unseaworthy fishing boat.
