What he told me was that he would far prefer to die of hunger in a British jail than to be executed in front of his own children

Solicitor, Hillary Brown

A total of 29 people are still refusing food, three others gave up their demonstration over the weekend.

In response to the protest the Refugee Council has called for an immediate halt to the policy of housing asylum seekers in prison.

The Prison Service said physical and mental health checks - which were carried out on the weekend - have raised no concerns over the detainees.

They have also denied that the asylum seekers are on hunger strike and claim that they are on "food refusal".

The jail in Cardiff's city centre

The decision to detain the asylum seekers in jail has been widely criticised by charity organisations and aid groups.

Solicitor Hillary Brown who represents five of the asylum seekers at the prison said: "They have all been subjected to the most horrendous crimes that you could ever imagine.

"They have fled to this country to seek asylum and international protection from this country."

One of the people that Ms Brown represents is a former prison warden from the Ukraine who claims he was sent death threats after he refused to pay protection money to a gang.

Ms Brown visited the man last week to discuss the situation in Cardiff jail.

She said: "What he told was that he would far prefer to die of hunger in a British jail than to be executed in front of his own children."

We call upon the Government to bring an immediate end to the grossly unjust process of detaining asylum seekers in prisons

Refugee Council deputy chief executive Margaret Lally

The men began the action on Wednesday, claiming they were not told they were bound for the jail.

A spokeswoman for the prison service said: "They are refusing food brought to them but they have access to food from the prison shop and are drinking liquids.

"All of them have filled in canteen slips which can be used for anything from food to toiletries."

The men have been kept at the prison for around four months under a Home Office policy announced earlier this year to hold them while specialist detention centres are built.

They claimed they were deceived by immigration officials and say they were told they would be sent to Cardiff, but not the city's jail.

'Desperate measure'

Refugee Council deputy chief executive Margaret Lally described the hunger strike as a "desperate measure".

Ms Lally said: "We call upon the Government to bring an immediate end to the grossly unjust process of detaining asylum seekers in prisons.

"Asylum seekers are being forced into prison regimes when they have neither committed nor even been accused of a crime.

"Often they are locked up for 23 hours a day, not given written reasons for their detention and are not told the length of time they will have to spend in prison."

The Home Office has said that the policy of housing asylum seekers in prison is a temporary measure and the government had pledged that no immigrants would be in prisons after Christmas.