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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent

Tamil refugees detained by UK on Chagos Islands go on hunger strike

Diego Garcia
Diego Garcia, a joint military facility of the UK and the US based on the largest of the Chagos Islands, which a UN court has ruled were unlawfully detached from Mauritius by the UK. Photograph: CPA Media Pte/Alamy

Dozens of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who have been detained for more than seven months in a military base on an overseas territory claimed by Britain have gone on hunger strike in despair at their plight.

The 42 hunger strikers are part of a group of 89 Sri Lankans, including 20 children, whose boat was intercepted and escorted to Diego Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean by the British military after running into distress while apparently headed to Canada from India in October.

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