About 170 prisoners, including several Pakistani nationals, have gone on a hunger strike at the Wackenhut Detention Center in Queens. They are protesting against the poor quality of the food and health services and the length of their detention.

The prisoners expressed the determination to continue the hunger strike for an indefinite period. Many of the prisoners, who suffer from heart ailments, diabetes and ulcers, don’t have access to health care and their health is deteriorating with each passing day. As well, the prisoners are forced to buy food from the center’s cafeteria because of the poor quality of food served to them.

Ehsanullah Bobby of the Coney Island Avenue Project, a non-governmental organization, told Pakistan Post that the strikers included 25 Pakistanis. He said the prison authorities have asked the prisoners to formally present their demands. Last year, between 60 to 65 prisoners staged a similar hunger strike. Following that strike, all the strikers were transferred to other detention centers, where some were kept in solitary confinement.

According to Bobby, some of the prisoners have been under detention for a long time. Some, he said, requested voluntary deportation to their respective countries, but are still waiting to hear on that. When asked if the hunger strike was protected by law, Bobby commented that all social justice movements that attained fame and importance in the world were started because of a denial of rights to the people. “I believe that such movements are beneficial for winning rights and freedom.”

Bobby reported that there are 30 women who are also detained at the center, rounded up for various violations of immigration law. Asked if these female detainees’ problems were conveyed to any elected official, he said the issue was brought to the attention of Congressman Major R. Owens, during a town hall meeting last week. Owens, a Democrat, is U.S. Representative from the 11th Congressional District, Brooklyn, New York

“Americans know what’s going on in jails in Afghanistan and Iraq,” said Bobby, then adding that they know nothing about the treatment prisoners receive in prisons and detention facilities in the United States. According to him, Congressman Owens requested the details on this issue.

The Coney Island Avenue Project set up a booth at the Brooklyn mela, an annual festival held to celebrate Pakistan’s independence day, to make public the plight of the detainees and to demand for their speedy release. Bobby reported that the police tried to remove the booth and forced the collaboration of the festival organizers to do so. However, Bobby refused to oblige. “I told them to go enjoy the festivities at the fair since the booth would not be removed.”

Earlier, Ms. Madeeha Tahir of the Coney Island Avenue Project, said the prisoners started their hunger strike on the morning of August 16 and would continue until their demands were met. Madeeha said immigration authorities had so far not taken notice of the hunger strike. Earlier, a press conference was held at Federal Plaza, where relatives of the detainees and representatives of several civil rights groups spoke. They demanded that the prisoners’ rights be protected and the release of all those who were not involved in a crime.

The wives of three of the detainees – Deeba, Juayna and Aena – along with their children also attended the press conference. Two of the women’s husbands are Pakistanis. Representatives of New York Civil Liberties Union, United for Peace and Justice and New York Immigration Coalition also attended the press conference. Ehsanullah Bobby urged the Pakistani community to raise its voice for the rights of the detainees to bring hope to those behind bars.