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Kosovars on hunger

strike in Australia

SYDNEY: Dozens of Kosovo refugees remained on a hunger strike on Monday while 10 others disappeared in an effort to avoid being sent home.

The federal government is insisting around 180 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo must leave Australia, even though many say their homeland, still riven by ethnic strife, is not safe.

A legal challenge to their expulsion by 72 of the refugees failed on Monday when the High Court rejected their application for an injunction blocking their return.

Also, immigration officials were looking for 10 refugees who had been living in the community but who went into hiding over the weekend as the deadline for their return approached.

The Kosovars' temporary safe haven visas were granted during the war in the Balkans. All 180 refugees officially became illegal immigrants on Sunday when their documents expired and they had not left the country.

Plans were being drawn up to move them by force if necessary from refugees shelters across Australia to one of three detention centers.

Refugees on hunger strike at Bandiana army base in the southern state of Victoria said they had been told by government officials they would be taken to detention centers within days.

But one refugee said they would resist attempts to be shifted to centers either at Woomera in South Australia or at Curtin or Port in Western Australia.ÑAP