Dozens of Myanmar refugees detained in India’s Manipur State have gone on hunger strike to demand that authorities there release them and promise not to hand them over to the junta in their home country.
The strike, at a prison in the state capital Imphal, began on Sunday with 28 protesters and has since grown to include 99 inmates, according to a statement released on Tuesday by Salai Dokhar, the founder of advocacy group India for Myanmar.
The protesters say they should be freed because they have already completed their sentences for “squatting” in the state, which has attracted thousands of refugees since the Myanmar military seized power in February 2021.
“They have all served their sentences to the full term and they have already paid the fines. They had to resort to protesting because they were still keeping them although they had already completed their prison terms,” said. . .
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