Letter: Hunger-striking asylum seekers at crisis point in detention centres

Sir: I have been visiting asylum seekers in detention centres and prisons for some years now in a personal capacity. The fact that so many of them have felt the need to go on hunger strike is an indication that they have reached a crisis point ('Asylum seekers' protests cause chaos', 25 March).

The asylum seekers cannot give their own names as they fear they would be recognised by the governments they have fled from, or that they would be labelled as 'disruptive' by the Immigration Service and transferred to prison cells, as has happened to several of their colleagues, but they would like to set out their reasons for hunger- striking.

They object to the violent deportation of their friends and compatriots. They have been detained for up to a year, in unfavourable conditions, often in criminal prisons. They have had no results in their applications, or have had unfavourable results, for instance on the grounds that there are no problems in the countries they come from.

They are the victims today because they have no other way of making their feelings heard; this is why they judge it better to die here, in a country where their fate will cause an outcry than to go back and die under terrible persecution without anyone knowing.

A civilised society should not be forcing these people to go on hunger strike in order to get their plight into the public eye.

Yours faithfully,

SAM WELLS

London, SW8

26 March