| Several hundred asylum seekers at Harmondsworth detention center, near London’s Heathrow Airport, have been on hunger strike since Monday. A reported 300 migrants are participating in the strike at the detention facility, which houses around 620 men. Hunger strikes and protests have been breaking out in similar centers since last week. Many of the detainees have taken to Twitter and Facebook to share their experiences. One Harmondsworth hunger striker reported Wednesday that several people had collapsed from lack of food and water. We have not eaten for four days now. And three people have collapsed from not eating or drinking. #Harmondsworth#shutitdown — Detained Voices (@detainedvoices) March 11, 2015 Britain’s Home Office estimates that some 30,000 migrants and asylum seekers are detained indefinitely in the country while their immigration status is resolved. Many are held for months or even years. In an open letter to the Home Office, detainees submitted a list of grievances. They complain of inadequate healthcare and access to legal service, noting that sometimes no legal counsel is provided for them at all. Many first-person detainee accounts are also being published on the Detained Voices website. “Nobody’s listening, nobody defends us,” one detainee said in a telephone recording obtained by RT. “It’s not humanity. They are treating us like we are animals or less than animals.” “Stop keep[ing] people in detention without any reason,” he urged. http://t.co/o1SHppTwBgRefugees go on hunger strike - close the camps! #Harmondsworth#VoteLynne#tuscpic.twitter.com/8AMiDyJtMW — Lynne Chamberlain (@Lynnesocialist) March 10, 2015 Solidarity with the hungerstrike rebellion in #Harmondsworth & #Colnbrookhttp://t.co/X8s2qSFCom#UK#RefugeeStrugglepic.twitter.com/s5ROQdcGMb — th anonymous (@ori_no_co) March 10, 2015 These thousands of migrants are detained under the controversial Detained Fast Track (DTF) program, which was set up in 2002 to deal with the uptick in asylum applications. Since 2008, The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has expressed concern about the program, calling it unfair and noting that the UK uses detention in asylum procedures much more often than other European countries. The protests come in the wake of a damning UK parliamentary inquiry published last week. The report confirmed alleged abuse and inhumane conditions in centers throughout the country. Parliamentarians also called for a 28-day maximum on immigration detention to be introduced. 50 people are not eating food in Tinsley House. Everyone is outside in the garden talking and discussing. — Detained Voices (@detainedvoices) March 10, 2015 I’m in Morton Hall detention centre. Today others are not going for food. https://t.co/wBZBpBxr9C — Detained Voices (@detainedvoices) March 10, 2015 |