Afghan immigrants end hunger strike

MATARAM, West Nusa Tenggara: After eight days of staging a hunger strike, illegal Afghan immigrants called it a day on Wednesday.

They stopped their hunger strike after meeting an official from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at the West Nusa Tenggara Police Headquarters.

The 16 Afghan immigrants on the hunger strike were demanding that the UNHCR accord them refugee status. During the meeting with the UNHCR, they were represented by five people, namely Remazan, Muhammad Niaz, Moraadali, Ubaidillah and Niematullah. Shinji Kubo from the UN represented the UNHCR.

Emerging from the meeting, Kubo said that the UNHCR would continue reviewing proposals from the illegal immigrants, in order to determine whether they could be accorded refugee status and transported to third countries.

The outcome of the review will be declared on March 1.

Thirty-one files on 64 illegal immigrants are to be reviewed. The immigrants are currently living at a hostel in Mataram, the capital of West Nusa Tenggara. -- JP