Campsfield House detention centre where the asylum seeker was found

The Home Office has confirmed that the man's body was discovered at Campsfield House detention centre in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, early on Monday.

The death of the unnamed man will now be investigated by police and the prisons ombudsman.

Another detainee at the centre is Crispen Kulinji, an opposition official to Robert Mugabe's regime, who is on hunger strike.

The 32-year-old is among more than 100 Zimbabwean UK detainees who fear being deported.

Mr Kulinji, from Harare, who won a temporary reprieve on Saturday, is one of six failed asylum seekers at the centre protesting against the lifting of a ban preventing them from being forcibly deported.

The hunger striker is an organising secretary and election co-ordinator for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - led by Morgan Tsvangirai.

He fears he will be killed if he returns home.

The Home Office has confirmed that a further 107 failed asylum seekers of various nationalities at the Oxfordshire detention centre are now refusing food "as a mark of respect for the dead man".