Immigrants in KL end hunger strike

Immigrants in KL end hunger strike

MALAYSIA: More than 100 illegal immigrants, many of them thought
to be asylum seekers from Indonesia and Myanmar, have ended a
hunger strike begun two days ago at a Malaysian detention camp, a
United Nations (UN) refugee official said on Wednesday.

"It was stopped at noon today," Volker Turk, Malaysia
representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), told Reuters. "They realized that the hunger
strike doesn't help and it can be counter-productive."

Rights groups said the detainees began their fast on Monday
morning to protest against cramped and dirty conditions at the
Semenyih center, one of the country's largest immigration
detention complexes, near the capital, Kuala Lumpur.

The UNHCR said the center housed about 1,500 immigrants who
are to be deported.

Malaysia's population of 25 million is richer than those of
more populous neighbors Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand,
and attracts tens of thousands of illegal workers each year from
those countries. -- Reuters