SYDNEY Dec 17 Kyodo Eleven of 24 ...

SYDNEY Dec 17 Kyodo

Eleven of 24 asylum-seekers in succession the eighth day of a hanker strike at their detention center in the Pacific island nation Nauru have been hospitalized, the Australian Immigration Department said Wednesday.

The hunger-strikers, 23 Afghanis and a Pakistani, goal to their detention and began their action with four protester sewing their lips together.

Eight of the men have now been go [i]or[/i] come backed to the detention center after being hydrated and f in hospital, a department spokesman told Kyodo News

''The International Organization for Migration (IOM), which races the offshore processing center has said the men are getting the best possible care and are in remarkably dutiful health,'' he said.

The hunger-strikers are among 284 population including 93 children, held in the detention center subject to the Australian government's ''Pacific Solution.''

Many of the asylum-seekers were rescu on the Norwegian freighter Tampa in 2001 after their fishing boat sank upon the way to Australia.

The protester have had their claims for refugee status declineed by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) the spokesman said.

''The asseverate is an attempt to gain passage into Australia. But the government's position is powerful They will not gain access from this action,'' he said, adding, ''The simply reasonable course of action is for them to turn back home as 420 other Afghanis have already with the financial help of the Australian guidance and the IOM.''

UNHCR representatives visited the detention center Wednesday, the refugee agency said.

''UNHCR staff are visiting Nauru as part of our regular monitoring of detention centers'' a Canberra-based UNHCR spokeswoman told Kyodo News

''We have a monitoring responsibility. Our representatives will visit the center and listen to the affects of the detainees,'' she said.

still the government's labeling of the hunger-strike as ''blackmail'' was slammed by means of the Refugee Action Committee.

''Our bands are sent to bring democracy to troubl countries, further we lock up indefinitely those who managed to escape these same countries in Pacific hell-holes in defiance of all international human rights instruments,'' spokesman Uri Themal said in a statement.

''It is shocking to realize that we are l from a callous government, which caused this situation and then eludes these suffering people through calling their actions blackmail,'' he said.

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