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Refugees hunger strike continues in Czech detention center

Xinhua, November 14, 2015 Adjust font size:

The hunger strike that held by refugees since Tuesday in Czech Drahonice detention facility continued on Friday, Czech Foreigner Police spokeswoman Katerina Rendlova said.

The situation in the facility has been calm, according to the spokeswoman.

The refugees in Drahonice detention facility began a hunger strike on Tuesday in protest against their long-time detention and the possible deportation from the Czech Republic to their country of origin.

One of the refugees from Drahonice was sent to hospital, but police said his hospitalization is not related to the hunger strike.

Rendlova said that 34 refugees did not turn up at breakfast on Friday. However it is difficult to find out who really held the hunger strike, because the refugees could purchase food on their own besides the meals offered by the facility.

On Thursday, 36 people had ordered meal packages and all of the hunger strikers took the packages over, said Rendlova.

Unlike Tuesday or Wednesday, the situation in the facility was calm on Friday, so far there no incidents or self-damaging of refugees occurred.

Talking about the situation in Drahonice on Friday, Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said that if the refugees want to force anything out by hunger strike or in any other way, it will be of no help to them.

He said that he believes the situation calms down, and the situation always worsen when journalists with cameras appear outside the facility.

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said the Interior Ministry acts under the laws of the Czech Republic. He said on Friday that it is important to realize that these people entered the territory of the Czech Republic illegally without the required documents and have not applied for asylum in the Czech Republic.

Those people have all their rights respected, they are cared for and provided with accommodation, they received food, they are treated in accordance with international standards, said Sobotka.

In reaction to the criticism, Chovanec said that the Czech staff in the detention facilities are professionals who neither attack nor maltreat refugees.

Apart from Drahonice, there are also detention facilities in Vysni Lhoty, north Moravia, and Bela-Jezova, central Bohemia in Czech Republic. Endit