THE detained asylum seekers being held at Harmondsworth refugee detention centre have stopped their hunger strike.

Twenty-nine Sri Lankan refugees had refused food and water for nearly a month. They were persuaded to stop their protest last week, but still face deportation back to Sri Lanka.

The detainees are Tamils, an ethnic minority group in Sri Lanka. They do not want to return home because they fear that they will be persecuted and possibly murdered.

Harrow councillor Thaya Idaikkadar, a fellow Tamil, went to the centre last Wednesday and persuaded the detainees to come off hunger strike. But he is still not happy about their treatment by the Government.

Detainees from the centre are being taken to the airport, and either removed from the plane at the last minute, or deported back to Sri Lanka.

However, an immigration and asylum tribunal adjudged last Monday that a Sri Lankan detainee, who has been refused asylum, would be "at real risk of torture by the Sri Lankan authorities" if he was forced to return.

The tribunal has issued this guidance to all immigration judges who hear asylum cases from Sri Lankan Tamils in the future. The Home Office has argued that only senior members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an outlawed Tamil group in Sri Lanka, are at risk.

A spokesman for the Border and Immigration agency said: "We are wholly committed to fulfilling our obligations to provide protection for those who are at real risk of persecution in accordance with our commitments under international law.

"However, it is an important part of ensuring an effective and fair asylum system that those found not to be in need of international protection are removed from the UK. We will not remove anyone who we believe is at risk."