Illegal Immigrants in Paris Hunger Strike

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS IN PARIS HUNGER STRIKE

Tuesday, 18 April 2006 18:10:00 GMT

PARIS, April 18, 2006 (AFP) - More than 130 illegal immigrants being held in a detention centre near Paris went on a hunger strike on Tuesday in protest at their living conditions, a migrant support group said.

All but 10 of the 146 inmates at the centre in Vincennes, on the southeast outskirts of Paris, refused to accept food on Tuesday, according to a spokeswoman for the Cimade group.

Most of those detained are originally from Algeria, China, Mali, Romania and Turkey and they are protesting at overcrowding in their rooms, a lack of access to the outside, and a general sense of neglect by French authorities, she said.

The French government recently stepped up its efforts to combat illegal immigration -- with an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 clandestine immigrants already living in the country.