Around 500 Detainees Launch Hunger Strike Over Conditions at Georgia ICE Center
Approximately 500 people detained at the privately run ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, have begun a hunger strike to protest alleged unsafe conditions and asylum-seeking violations.
Roughly 500 individuals detained at the privately operated ICE center in Folkston, Georgia, have started a hunger strike to draw attention to alleged unsafe conditions, insufficient medical care, and violations of asylum protocols. Attorney Samantha Hamilton of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta notes that most strikers are asylum seekers from authoritarian regimes who have been awaiting judicial hearings for months or years.
The strike, involving about 372 men in the F building and K5 pod and an estimated 150 others elsewhere, follows months of legal petitions and a September letter from Russian-speaking detainees complaining about food, sleep, and water quality. Detainees claim the water is undrinkable, leading some to work for a dollar a day to buy bottled water, and report rashes and hair loss. The GEO Group, which runs the facility, recently received a $47 million contract to increase capacity to 3,000 beds, making it the nation’s largest ICE center.
Officials from ICE, the GEO Group, and several politicians have not responded to comment requests. One detainee’s spouse, Polina Chertushkina, says her husband was placed in solitary confinement for joining the protest and hopes for his release.
Why it matters
The strike spotlights alleged human-rights abuses in U.S. immigration detention and a major expansion of a controversial private prison.
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