Migrants in Barcelona detention center start hunger strike
Group of 60 recent arrivals begin protest over living conditions in state-run facility with demand to be freed says Let’s Close the CIE NGO
Around 60 Guinean detainees in Barcelona’s Migrant Detention Center (CIE in Catalan) started a hunger strike on Monday evening, say Spanish police, in protest against what they describe as poor conditions. The protesters, which may include minors, demand to be released by the state authorities, which run the center, and say they are determined not to give up their protest until they are “granted freedom,” said the Let’s Close the CIE NGO (Tanquem els CIE, in Catalan) in a news conference on Tuesday.
One of the organization’s lawyers, Andrés García Berrio, claimed that since the management of the center has changed, the living conditions have become poorer with shortfalls in health care and a “systematic presence” of riot police officers in the center. He also announced that the Spanish government may be organizing a flight to send the migrants back to their home country in Africa, which he believes violates “individual rights”.