Vigil Marks 100 Days Of Detainees' Hunger Strike

Activists staged a candlelight vigil outside the Castle Peak Bay Immigration Detention Centre (CIC) on Tuesday to mark 100 days since a group of people detained there began a hunger strike to protest against what they describe as "indefinite detention".

Around 30 people attended the vigil, and chanted "Freedom Now!", while detainees responded from inside the facility. The CIC Concern Group says more than two dozen detainees began the protest at the end of June, and seven are still refusing food.

Anna Tsui, a member of the concern group, said: "The hunger strikers and many other detainees simply want to get out of CIC and I don't think all of them got an answer to that.

"A lot of them were convinced by the authorities that they would get bail soon, and that could be a reason why they decided to start their hunger strike, but their medical conditions, and a lot of basic hygiene conditions, are still not met."

The Immigration Department had said in July that the condition of the detainees who were refusing meals was being monitored and their glucose levels indicated that they were receiving food. It has consistently rejected criticism of conditions in the detention centre.

It said most of the hunger strikers were awaiting deportation for serious or violent crimes, a process that was being delayed because they were applying for judicial reviews of their cases.

However Tsui disputed the need to keep the group in detention.

"According to the department, less than one percent of all people are kept in CIC. A lot of the others are kept on recognisance and we don't see dangerous crimes raging in Hong Kong, so I think that claim is simply not empirically sound."