Asylum protester sews up lips
An Iranian asylum seeker has stitched up his eyes, lips and ears in protest against plans to deport him.
The 33-year-old poet is reportedly very weak after going several days without food and fluids.
Abas Amini, who is living in Nottingham, took the action after his bid for asylum was challenged by the Home Office.
The Home Office has refused to comment specifically on his case but doctors have warned that if he continues on hunger strike he could die within days. He is refusing all medical attention, including antibiotics to treat eyelid infections, and threatens to set himself on fire if anyone forces him to eat.
A Home Office spokesman commented: ‘If this has happened, then it is deeply regrettable that someone would choose this course of action. It sounds horrendous.’
Mr Amini is being monitored by a doctor who says that he is weak but thinking clearly. Mr Amini told The Guardian newspaper: ‘I spent many years in prison being tortured; I was forced to flee here. Shouldn’t a human being have a square foot of earth to live on to live in peace?’
He appears to have been granted asylum three weeks ago after his original application was rejected but took drastic action after the Home Office announced its intention to appeal.
Mr Amini claims that he will be executed for his communist past and political poetry if he is returned to Iran. He fled to Britain after being jailed and allegedly tortured in Iran two year ago. He says he will stop his protests as soon as the government withdraws its appeal.
Last week, Home Office statistics showed a 32 per cent fall in asylum applications for the first three months of the year.
