26 Oct 2012

Australia's asylum seekers on collective hunger strike on Nauru

3:22 pm on 26 October 2012

A non-government group advocating for the asylum seekers who have been sent by Australia to Nauru says almost all of the nearly 400 inmates at the island's camp are on a 24-hour hunger strike.

Ian Rintoul of the Australian based Refugee Action Coalition says he's been told by a detainee the protest is a warning to Australia.

Mr Rintoul says the protest has clear demands, namely that Canberra close the Nauru camp; stop killing humanity; return the asylum seekers on Nauru to Australia and immediately begin the processing of their claims for refugee status.

He says the camp, where the inmates live in tents, was hit by a heavy storm on Thursday night, making conditions much worse, with everything getting wet.

Mr Rintoul says an Iranian man, who he says attempted suicide earlier this week, is under 24 hour surveillance and is being followed around the camp by up to four guards.

The Nauru government says there was no such suicide attempt or what it called a self-harming incident.