Dozens of asylum seekers have ended a month-long hunger strike at an Australian-funded detention camp on the Pacific island of Nauru, rights groups and officials said on Thursday.
A group of 35 Afghan men had been refusing food for up to 29 days and several had sewn their lips shut in a protest against Australia's refusal to let them in. Nauru holds more than 280 asylum seekers.
Howard Glenn, national director of human rights group A Just Australia, said the protesters had suspended the hunger strike on Thursday after they had been told the government would reconsider their applications.
"The language the hunger strikers are using is that they have suspended it for a limited number of weeks to allow the government to make good on its commitments to reprocess based on new country information," Glenn said.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone was not immediately available for comment.
Dennis Nihill, regional representative for the International Organisation for Migration, which runs the Nauru camp, told state-run Australian Broadcasting Corp radio the asylum seekers had ended their hunger strike on advice from representatives in Australia.
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