Almost all of the 400 asylum seekers on Nauru are holding a one-day hunger strike today, Friday 26 October. The hunger strike began Friday morning and will go until Saturday morning.
The hunger strike protest also coincides with Nauru Independence day. For Muslims it is also Eid, the day to celebrate the end of Ramadan.
“For us this is a day of sorrow, not celebration. This [protest hunger strike] is a warning to Australia and the authorities that we will continue to protest. Next time there may be longer hunger strike,” asylum seekers on Nauru told the Refugee Action Coalition.
There will also be a mass protest in the camp at 3.00pm Nauru time.
The protest has clear demands: close Nauru; stop killing humanity; to return asylum seekers on Nauru to Australia and to immediately begin processing.
A heavy storm last night has made conditions in the camp much worse. “The leaky tents are worse than the leaky boats they say we came in,” the caller said.
“Water is everywhere. The camp is like a pond, and many things, our beds, got wet.”
One man who began vomiting blood last night had been taken to see the doctor but there is no doctor at the camp at night. He given a mask and taken back to his tent. It was only after protests with many people ‘shouting for him to go to hospital’ that he was taken out of the camp. The man remains in hospital today.
The Iranian man who attempted suicide on Tuesday night is under 24 hour surveillance and is still being followed around the camp by up to four guards.
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713
