Australia Asylum Hunger Strike Ends

A two-week hunger strike by asylum seekers at a remote Outback detention center was declared over Wednesday after government negotiators convinced detainees their refugee claims would be processed.

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said a team of government negotiators had assured detainees their applications for asylum in Australia would be processed, and those involved in the hunger strike would not be disadvantaged when their claims were considered.

"I want to just affirm as a matter of goodwill that those who have been involved in these events should not expect other than lawful and fair and humane processing of their claims in accordance with our law," Ruddock said.

One of the hunger strikers, Hassan Varasi, confirmed to the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the strike was over.

"From right now, we are breaking our hunger strike," he said.

Varasi said they had chosen to end their protest out of respect for the Australian community and the government negotiating team.

Since Jan. 16, hundreds of illegal immigrants at Woomera — a former missile testing base on a hot, dusty plain 1,120 miles west of Sydney — had refused food to protest conditions at the camp and the length of time the government takes to process their asylum applications.

There are about 3,000 illegal immigrants mainly from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and southern Asia currently in detention in five camps across Australia.

Early Wednesday, the immigration department said 249 people at Woomera were refusing to eat — 215 men, 21 women and 13 children. However, 55 men agreed to have a meal Tuesday night, a department spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity.

During the two-week crisis, dozens of people sewed their lips together. On Wednesday morning just three people remained with stitches in their mouths, she added.

Lawyers representing the immigrants have said they feared some of the protesters were nearing death after not eating for so long and drinking very little in temperatures up to 104 degrees.

Another nine refugees, all aged 18, had said they would harm themselves by 5 p.m. Wednesday if they were not moved out of Woomera. It was not immediately clear if they also would call off their protest.

The chief government negotiator said the team had developed a good rapport with the detainees' representatives.

"Our mission is to help resolve this terrible crisis and to avert tragedy and I think we're well on the way to doing that," Ray Funnell said late Tuesday, before the hunger strike's end was announced.

The team had earlier recommended closing Woomera, though the government stopped short of promising to shut down the camp.

"Woomera is an extremely harsh environment in which to detain anybody," said government negotiator Paris Aristotle.

Ruddock responded to the recommendation by saying that the camp could be scaled down as other holding facilities were built. Closing Woomera might be possible in the future, he aded.

By Emma Tinkler
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