Several hundred asylum seekers at the Australian-run detention center in Papua New Guinea (PNG)\u2019s Manus Island have remained on hunger strike for the eighth day to protest against their living conditions.
\nThe hunger strike continued on Tuesday night as two more men reportedly swallowed razor blades to protest their dire condition in detention.
\nThe two Sudanese men were taken to the center\u2019s medical clinic after being found bleeding from the mouth. Earlier, two other protesters had swallowed razor blades.
\nThe hunger strikers were reportedly lying on mats over concrete under a large shelter, and guards were looking for men with cell phones who were communicating with people outside.
\nSeveral asylum seekers have reportedly harmed themselves by sewing their lips together and swallowing razor blades during the protest action.
\nReports indicate that at least 1,035 men are currently held in Manus Island.
\nThe reports, however, are hard to verify since the media are not allowed at the site.
\nEarlier on Tuesday, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott had said the asylum seekers\u2019 protest in Manus Island had been brought to an end.
\n\u201cThere was a well-organized, well-coordinated protest in some parts of the Manus center. It amounted to a blockade,\u201d Abbott told reporters, adding that the \u201cblockade has now been broken.\u201d
\nAustralia uses detention facilities in Papua New Guinea and the tiny island of Nauru to hold up the refugees who attempt to reach the country illegally, which “profoundly” impacts the “men, women and children housed there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Several hundred asylum seekers at the Australian-run detention center in Papua New Guinea (PNG)\u2019s Manus Island have remained on hunger strike for the eighth day to protest against their living conditions. The hunger strike continued on Tuesday night as two more men reportedly swallowed razor blades to protest their dire condition in detention. The two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-asia-and-oceania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agencedh.org\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}