Dungavel houses asylum seekers prior to removal from the UK

Earlier, a detainee at the Dungavel detention centre told BBC Scotland that 100 people were involved.

According to asylum seekers being held within the detention centre, the move was sparked off by the suicide of a Kurdish asylum seeker a week ago.

Dungavel House is Scotland's only immigration removal centre.

Charity Positive Action in Housing said the death was the "tip of the iceberg" for many detainees, complaining that they could be kept at Dungavel without time limit and that they have poor quality legal representation.

PAIH director Robina Qureshi said residents would suspend the hunger strike when the head of immigration agreed to meet them.

Constant target

She said: "Dungavel is no half-way house to the airport as the government likes us to think - people are being held in detention for up to 18 months or longer."

Dungavel House is currently holding 161 people, a mix of single females, single males and families.

A spokesman for the Home Office said its officials recorded 50 people who refused the meals.

He said: "Fifty people didn't have lunch or dinner. They have gone back to their rooms."

Dungavel has been a constant target of criticism from politicians, pro-asylum activists and church leaders since it opened in 2001.

Last month the chief prison inspector criticised immigration chiefs for handcuffing asylum seekers held at Dungavel in public, despite pledging not to do so.