Dozens of refugees from Syria, who have been detained in an Egyptian police station, began a hunger strike on Friday in order to draw attention to their plight, the Jerusalem Post reports.
The United Nations refugee agency confirms that 52 refugees of Syrian and Palestinian origin have refused to receive food delivered by a UNHCR-funded charity to the police station where they are held in the coastal city of Alexandria.
The United Nations refugee agency confirms that 52 refugees of Syrian and Palestinian origin have refused to receive food delivered by a UNHCR-funded charity to the police station where they are held in the coastal city of Alexandria.
There are 21 children and eight women among the detained refugees.
An activist doctor in Egypt says 35 detained Syrian refugees are on a hunger strike to protest their captivity in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
Taher Mokhtar, a member of the Alexandria doctors' syndicate, said the refugees he visited in a police station on Saturday demanded to be released or to be granted asylum in Europe. Mokhtar said they started the hunger strike on Friday.
An official from the United Nations Refugee Agency in Egypt, Mohamed Dayri, said authorities currently detain 128 Syrian refugees who tried to travel illegally to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea. Dayri said they usually are held until they buy a ticket to leave Egypt.
Syrian refugees complain of difficult living conditions in Egypt after some were accused of supporting ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
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