More than a dozen Afghan asylum seekers stitched their mouths shut and vowed Wednesday to fast until their cases are resolved, after the United Nations ruled out sending them to a third country to begin new lives. The group of about 40 migrants have been living for more than two years in a hostel in Bogor on the southern outskirts of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. They started refusing food Tuesday when the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees rejected their appeals for asylum status, a move that would mean they would get to move to a third country such as the United States, Norway or Australia. In a grisly twist, sixteen of the hunger strikers have sewn four stitches in their mouths to press their demand. "We will continue our hunger strike until a fair solution is found to our problems," said Ghulam, a 21-year-old student who is the group's spokesman.
