CKUT Radio: Detention Center Hunger Strike in New York

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Listen to an interview with Bobby Khan, director of the Coney Island Avenue project and long-time Pakistani immigrant rights activist. The interview focuses on the August 16th, hunger strike of approximately 200 immigrant detainees at the Wackenhut Detention Center in Queens New York, which lasted upwards of 90 hours.

The hunger strike was organized by the detainees, to put forward a set of direct demands regarding the lack of respect for basic rights within US detention centers, including the right to humane treatment, the right to due process, the right to access appropriate medical healthcare, the right to case review, the immediate release of non-criminal prisoners and family reunification.

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CONEY ISLAND AVENUE PROJECT
Press Release
Date: August 20th 2004

DETAINEES FACE ATTACKS FOR HUNGER STRIKE

175 male immigrant detainees who began a hunger strike to demand their rights, ended the strike last night after threats and solitary confinement by authorities.

A hunger strike by 175 male immigrant detainees at Wackenhut Detention Center ended last night after detention center guards threw some of the strikers into solitary confinement and threatened the prisoners with immediate deportation or prolonged imprisonment. The authorities also tried unsuccessfully to force prisoners to sign documents. The nature of those documents remains unclear.

Authorities have come down especially hard on Makhan Singh, an Indian detainee, who spoke to the press about the conditions and inhumane treatment inside Wackenhut. Singh was thrown into solitary confinement and continues to face threats and harassment by prison guards who have threatened him alternately with deportation, or prolonged imprisonment and transferral to another detention center far from his family.

The strike which began on Monday, August 16th was the largest at Wackenhut to date with over 80 percent of the male prisoners participating including a Nigerian who has been imprisoned at Wackenhut for 7 out of the 8 years of its existence. The prisoners are demanding their basic rights: the right to humane treatment, the right to a lawyer and due process, the right to access appropriate medical healthcare and appropriate food, the right to case review and immediate release, and family reunification. Several of the detainees are married to US citizens.

The government has refused to release any information on immigrant detentions, so it is not clear how many immigrants are languishing in detention centers across the US. Given that the prisoners at Wackenhut are largely people of color who come from India, Pakistan, Cameroon, Nigeria, China and other countries, it is clear that these detentions are a form of racism and the criminalisation of immigrants. Private detention centers, of which Wackenhut is one, are earning large profits from the detention of immigrants and the current climate of racism against Arabs, Muslims, South Asians and immigrants generally. For example, detainees are pressured to buy cafeteria food as the food served at the center is often insufficient and inadequate. Prisoners at Wackenhut are allowed to work for $1 per day in order to help pay for their expenses.

A previous hunger strike by 60-65 inmates at Wackenhut ended with some prisoners being thrown in solitary confinement while others were transferred to other detention centers. That strike occurred approximately a year ago.