Asylum seeker's hunger strike enters 49th day in Australia

The hunger strike by an asylum seeker being held in an Australian detention center entered his 49th day without food on Friday.

He has now given detention center medical staff orders which were communicated via an interpreter that he not be fed if he loses consciousness.

He stopped eating on Nov. 1 after being refused refugee status.

If he does lose consciousness, doctors can only follow the Iranian detainee's instructions unless they get ministerial approval from Australian Immigration and Border Security minister Scott Morrison to force him to be fed.

The detainee is housed in Darwin's Wickham Point detention center.

Lawyer John Lawrence, representing him, said his client who has lost more than 25 kilograms is now very sick.

"He had particularly blood shot eyes, he was weaker," he told Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) Online.

"He was complaining of aches in his joints and limbs."

A doctor at the center said his concern was that if the detainee lost consciousness over the upcoming holiday period, there may be no one in the Immigration Department to issue the necessary directive to start feeding him.

A spokesperson for Minister for Immigration and Border Security Scott Morrison told ABC Online it was inappropriate to comment for privacy reasons.

The president of the Australian Medical Association Northern Territory said the detainee was likely suffering a degree of organ failure. Endi