At least ten Rohingyas from Myanmar detained in Assam were hospitalised on Wednesday owing to concern over their health after they went on a hunger strike on Monday in protest against their “prolonged” detention even after they had served out their jail term.

The ten hospitalised persons are detained at the Matia Detention Centre in Goalpara district. Their condition is stable. One of the hospitalised inmates told a Goalpara resident the “Indian government should allow us to live in India or allow us to die as refugees”. He had been under detention for seven years.

The hunger strike continued on Wednesday.

An official told The Telegraph there are 103 Rohingyas, including 39 minors, and 32 Chin refugees from Myanmar, in the Matia camp which became operational last year.

He also said the adult members were convicted under Indian law for illegally entering India and were handed terms ranging terms two to three years. They were sent to the Matia camp last year after having served their respective jail terms.

“The state government is taking up the issue with the MEA and the MHA for deportation because India is not a signatory to the UNCHR convention. Therefore, we don’t recognise refugees in India. For us, they remain a security threat to the nation. Of late, the Assam government has intensified efforts to curb infiltration through the international border,” the official said.

Infiltration has been a sensitive issue in Assam since the seventies.

The issue of the hunger strike attracted attention after the Delhi-based non-profit NGO — Rohingya Human Rights Initiative (R4R) — flagged the hunger strike issue on Tuesday through a statement which said the organisation was “anguished by the heart-wrenching plight of Myanmar refugees, including Rohingya and Chin, who have been driven to the extreme measure of a hunger strike in the Matia Detention Centre in Assam, India.”

“This desperate act of protest reflects their unbearable struggle against indefinite detention, where their fundamental human rights have been systematically denied,” the statement said. The rights body said that of those detained 40 possess refugee cards issued by UNHCR, India.

“Across India, the situation is no less grim, with nearly 1,000 Rohingya refugees, including 200 children, separated from their families and held in detention. These individuals have already served the sentences handed down under India’s Foreigners Act of 1946, yet they continue to be imprisoned, facing arbitrary and prolonged detention,” the rights body said.

The Rohingya, one of the most persecuted communities in the world, have been subjected to brutal atrocities by the Myanmar military and extremist groups, including war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and systematic persecution, the R4R said.