Immediately following the signaling on our free line dedicated to prisoners at the Penitentiary's Institution of Burrel, representatives of the People's Advocate arrived in this prison where it is learned that convicts are refusing the food in the context of a hunger strike announced by them.

The People's Advocate Team in a fact-finding mission has managed to secure statements from 18 convicts of the high security sector in this institution.

From the declarations it is ascertained that: a number of convicts serving their sentences in this prison have begun the rejection of the lunch meal as a sign of the announcement of a hunger strike in protest against the failure to meet a number of requests.

The main causes of this refusal include bad living conditions in this penitenciary institution related to outdated and amortized infrastructure of this prison.

In addition, convicts raise allegations about the quality of food treatment provided to this institution, lack of conditions for development of activities, transfer procedures from other prisons to the Burrel prison, etc.

Burrel prisoners are currently in negotiations with the strike participants and have been informed about its protocol.

The People's Advocate Institution brings to the attention of the public and the responsible authorities as well, that since at least three years ago the inappropriate conditions of this prison have been denounced and our institution has officially called for the closure of the Burrel prison because of its difficult and inadequate conditions to perform its functions in a dignified manner.

The People's Advocate underlines that although in some of the institutions of the execution of court orders throughout the Republic, efforts are made to improve the infrastructure and the living conditions of the inmates, a comprehensive solution and without exception the problem of those prisons that still fail to receive a "passing grade" on the class of the conditions they provide for citizens who serve their sentences in them, remains a challenge for our authorities.