Twenty-two Indian Sikhs, all of them seeking asylum in the United States, have been on a hunger strike at a South Florida immigration detention facility since July 25, demanding a bond hearing at a Miami processing centre instead of being subjected to removal proceedings.
The American Civil liberties Union (AClU) has raised serious concerns about the treatment of the asylum-seekers and said it intends to file a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil liberties.
Taking the stand that the 22 men have been “willfully misled” about their rights, AClU’s Florida Staff Attorney Shalini Agarwal said in a statement that the situation is urgent because of the “rapidly deteriorating health” of the asylum-seekers.
In April last year, more than 40 Sikh men, claiming to have fled political persecution in Punjab, had went on a similar hunger strike at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing centre in El Paso, Texas. The men had reportedly been held captive for close to a year after they had crossed into the US from Mexico and sought political asylum. Finally, most of the men were deported back to India.
In the present case in Florida, the 22 detainees began their fast after learning that the judge who would hear their bond appeal at the Broward Transitional Centre does not grant bonds to individuals in their circumstances. Thereafter, they were transferred to the Krome processing centre in West Miami-Dade County. Based on promises by ICE that they would receive a bond hearing at Krome, they ended the hunger strike.