One Hundred and Seventy Asylum Seekers on Hunger Strike at Australian Camp in Nauru

Protesting against transfer to the remote island

SYDNEY — Australia's Department of Immigration has confirmed that 170 asylum seekers in Nauru have started a hunger strike.  Detainees say that they are protesting their transfer to a remote camp in the South Pacific while they wait to have their refugee claims processed. 

The protest involves mostly Sri Lankan asylum seekers and others from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan.

They have been taken to Nauru, a tiny South Pacific island near the Equator, to an Australian-sponsored detention center.