The hunger strike by detained Zimbabweans in the UK continues, calling for an end to deportations to Zimbabwe. This call has been backed by much of the press, the Archbishop of Canterbury and opposition parties in parliament. The government continues to criticise the regime in Zimbabwe, but insists deportations to Zimbabwe will continue.
The hunger strike began on Wednesday 22nd June, originally for three days.
Support the Campsfield hunger strikers by coming to the special demonstration on Saturday 2nd July 2005. See the events page for details.
This is part of a mass hunger strike by the United Network of Detained Zimbabweans (UNDZ), taking place in immigration detention centres across the UK. The UNDZ are protesting conditions in the centres and the continued deportations to Zimbabwe.
In a statement to NCADC (the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns) one of the detainees representing UNDZ said:
'On Tuesday the 14th June, Jack Straw the Foreign Secretary in a written ministerial statement said: "Zimbabweans are deprived of their democratic and human rights, facing the consequences of chronic economic misrule, and grappling with severe food shortages."
'Yet Charles Clarke the Home Secretary, continues to detain and deport Zimbabweans, is he unaware of what his Foreign Secretary knows to be true, that Zimbabwe is a very dangerous place to be if you are an enemy real or imagined of Robert Mugabe.'