PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

At least 14 imprisoned African immigrants have gone on a hunger strike calling on the Trinidad and Tobago government to deport them to Nigeria, a spokesman for the group told reporters yesterday.

The immigrants have been at the Maximum Security Prison at Arouca, east of here, for more than a year, and their representative David Walcott, said they had embarked on their protest action on the weekend.

He said the State had been ignoring the matter involving the immigrants and prison authorities have also been denying them their basic rights. He said the situation had become even worse, with prison authorities refusing the immigrants access to their own funds.

Hunger strike

"The inmates have decided that because of the fact that the prison authorities are refusing them to access money that they have stored which would assist in their legal expenses, they have said they would not be accepting meals until that condition is met".

Walcott said the African nationals were also denied medical attention.

He said that last month's attempt to deport six Nigerians failed because of the time spent by the authorities in dealing with the situation. He said one of the Nigerians had the necessary papers to land in neighbouring Venezuela, while the other five had to wait on a plane awaiting deportation.