Hunger strikers fall unconscious

Luh Putu Trisna Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Mataram

Three illegal Afghan immigrants, who are on a hunger strike and have stitched their mouths closed to press the United Nations to grant them refugee status, fell unconscious on Thursday and were rushed to hospital.

The hunger strikers, Niematullah, 38, Muhammad Riza, 20, and Shaukat Ali, 30, have been receiving treatment for dehydration at the Siti Hajar Islamic Hospital since Thursday evening.

They started their hunger strike on Tuesday and three days later they fell unconscious after complaining of headaches and stomachaches.

Currently, the illegal immigrants being fed intravenously.

However, the Afghans say they are not going to end their hunger strike or allow medical staff to remove the stitches from their mouths.

"I will not allow them to remove the stitches," Reza said with difficulty at the hospital.

This is the third hunger strike by illegal immigrants this year in Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), to protest against the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)'s refusal to grant them refugee status.

In August, a similar protest involved nearly a dozen Afghan asylum seekers, some of whom had also stitched their mouths shut and had to be hospitalized following the hunger strike.

Earlier in January, 19 Afhan immigrants staged a hunger strike for eight days and only halted their protest after meeting a UNHCR official at West Nusa Tenggara Police Headquarters, who promised to consider their demands.

Niematullah and Shaukat had also participated in the previous hunger strikes.

"I will stay on hunger strike until I die, if necessary. And if I die, the UNHCR must he held responsible," Shaukat said in a statement.

The three people currently on hunger strike are among 47 illegal Afghan immigrants who have been staying for between three and five years at the Nusantara hostel in Mataram, the NTB capital.

At one stage there were 118 of them, but most of them were granted refugee status and sent to third countries, such as New Zealand, Canada or Australia.

They refused to return to Afghanistan out of fears for their safety even though the Taliban regime has been deposed.