[JURIST] A group of asylum-seekers originating from Asia and Africa has begun a hunger strike in a detention camp in southwest Morocco in an attempt to gain refugee status from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) [official website], the Moroccan Association of Human Rights [advocacy website, in French] said in a statement late Monday. Of the 247 illegal immigrants held in the military barracks in the city of Ghalmim for the past two weeks, 71 from the Ivory Coast, Congo, India and Bangladesh have gone on hunger strike over the poor conditions in which they are being held. The UNHCR says it has received a "flood" of asylum applications as the immigration crisis in Morocco continues. Morocco faces an increasingly tense immigration situation, as many sub-Saharan Africans use the country's border with the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla as a means to enter the European Union [JURIST report]. Aljazeera has more.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Amnesty condemns Spain, Morocco for rights violations against migrants
• Morocco has blocked access to migrants, UN refugee agency says
• Morocco deports illegal immigrants bound for Spain
• Spain deports 73 in ongoing border clash with Morocco
• Spain to expel illegal African immigrants following border assaults