'Double prosecution' of asylum seekers

Detainees in Cardiff jail recently ended a hunger strike

A Nigerian asylum seeker being detained in Cardiff prison has described his situation as a "double prosecution".

In an interview with the BBC Radio 4 PM programme reporter Jon Manel, the man questioned his decision to seek asylum in Britain.

The unnamed asylum seeker is one of more than 30 asylum seekers being held in Cardiff prison while their cases are processed.

He said: "I'm getting to the stage now where I'm saying to myself isn't it better for me to go back to where I'm going to be killed (rather) than being humiliated?

"You come for aid and you are being locked up again. It's like you are facing a double prosecution."

The policy of jailing asylum seekers has attracted widespread criticism

The asylum seekers recently ended a week-long hunger strike in protest at being kept in cells.

Another refugee told the BBC, via a letter to his solicitor, that he felt "like an animal in a zoo", and described the humiliation of being taken to hospital for chest x-rays in handcuffs.

The prison's governor, John Thomas-Ferrand, said the detainees were allowed out of their cells for up to six hours every day like other prisoners but had access to extra facilities.

Detention policy

The men have been kept at the prison for about four months under a Home Office policy announced earlier this year to hold them while specialist detention centres are built.

They claimed they were deceived by immigration officials saying they were told they would be sent to Cardiff, but not the city's jail.

Assembly Minister Edwina Hart: "Not appropriate"

The controversy of holding would-be immigrants in prison gathered pace in May after it was revealed that some were taken to hospital for routine tests in handcuffs.

A demonstration outside the prison a few weeks later attracted a range of groups opposed to the policy.

Welsh Assembly Finance Minister Edwina Hart said it was not appropriate.

And Cardiff North MP Julie Morgan who visited the prison in July later told the Commons the policy was "deeply inhumane".