by Selwyn Manning

Claims are being made that a number of the hunger striking asylum seekers, locked up at Auckland's Mt Eden Prison, are seriously ill.

But the Department of Corrections denies that the condition of the men is causing concern.

The asylum seekers are 18 men from Pakistan, India and Iran have been refused temporary permits to stay in New Zealand. They are protesting against, what they call a pathetically slow bureaucracy, and the New Zealand Government's policy of holding would-be-refugees in prison until their identity and status can be determined.

The protest hunger strike is into its second week. Amnesty International claims one has begun coughing up blood, while another has suffered a heart attack.

But according to Corrections Deprtment officials, Amnesty's claims are rubbish, and that prison staff are monitoring the health of the men constantly.

Immigration Minister, Tuariki Delamere, last week said the asylum seekers have been using illness as an excuse to stall their immigration appeal.

He said if the asylum seekers continued their policy of non-cooperation after having been found well enough to be interviewed, the Immigration Service would have no option but to decline their refugee status claims as the Service would not be able to make a decision based on fact or credibility.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>