Migrants start hunger strike in Hungarian detention center

A group of migrants living in a closed detention center in Bekescsaba, southern Hungary, have started a hunger strike on Monday, according to Hungarian public television M1. (Photo by NordNordWest (talk · contribs) – own work, using United States National Imagery and Mapping Agency data, CC BY-SA 3.0,)

BUDAPEST—A group of migrants living in a closed detention center in Bekescsaba, southern Hungary, have started a hunger strike on Monday, according to Hungarian public television M1.

About a hundred migrants reside in the camp, but the number of people taking part in the hunger strike is yet unknown.

Media reported many migrants are “suffering from physical and psychic illnesses,” and wish to quit the detention camp as soon as possible.

They claimed that they felt “imprisoned” although they had “fled war and death,” and they have been in the detention centre for six months without having any information about their case, reports said.

On March 7, the Hungarian government hardened its legislation, by restricting asylum seekers in so-called transit zones on the southern border of Hungary with Serbia.

According to the new regulations, Hungarian police will detain each illegal alien found in Hungarian territory and take them to the transit zones to evaluate their case.