NEWS: Chinese/Iraqi/Afghan migrants on hunger strike in Lithuania
Josef J. Barton (texbart@merle.acns.nwu.edu)
Thu, 4 Apr 1996 10:40:57 -0600
[Co-editor's note: Today's New York Times (4/4/96) carries a
story, under the heading "Some African Immigrants Refusing to
Leave France," about 250 Africans, mostly women and
children, who were driven to the eastern fringes of Paris by
their refusal to accept the French government's rejection of
their applications for asylum, and "who were huddled together
against the cold in the Bois de Vincennes, in a theater complex
-- the third temporary shelter they have lived in over the last
two weeks." In the meantime, as the OMRI dispatch below
illustrates, such conflict is rising in Eastern Europe as well.
This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media
Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research
offices in Prague, Czech Republic. For more information on OMRI
publications, please write to <info@omri.cz>. Back issues of the
Digest are available on the OMRI Web Page at
<http://www.omri.cz/OMRI.html>. JB]
*************************
[From: OMRI Daily Digest II, No. 68, 4 Apr 96]
THIRD WORLD MIGRANTS ON HUNGER STRIKE IN LITHUANIA. A group of 44
people from China, Iraq, and Afghanistan are on a hunger strike
in the northeastern town of Visaginas to press claims for refugee
status in Lithuania, Reuters reported on 2 April. The
asylum-seekers, who have been detained for three months at a
makeshift camp, threatened suicide if their situation is not
resolved. All of them reportedly came from neighboring Belarus.
At least 500 refugees are currently being detained in Lithuania,
which has become a transit route for migrants trying to reach the
affluent Scandinavian states. -- Dan Ionescu