A group of Palestinian asylum-seekers from Lebanon continued their protest at Helsinki's Orthodox Uspensky Cathedral for a third day on Monday. The nine men began a hunger strike on Saturday to draw attention to the rejection of their applications for asylum.

   

The group began their protest inside the massive church in the centre of Helsinki on Saturday evening. The move came after an administrative court decision endorsing the rejection of their asylum applications. Most of those taking part in the protest had been living at the Punkalaidun refugee reception centre. They had all been in Finland for about three years awaiting a ruling on their cases.

On Saturday evening the men

refused to leave the cathedral at closing time and had to be removed by police. On Sunday they began their day listening to the morning service, after which they left the sanctuary of the building to continue their protest on the front steps of the church.

   

In spite of their hunger strike, they did agree to drink some water and coffee on Sunday, but only after one of them had to be hospitalised for dehydration under the bright sun.

   

The men have been allowed to stay inside the cathedral during opening hours, and police say that the situation is calm. No arrests have been made because no violence has taken place, and no laws have been violated.

   

One of the members of the group, Jaafar Maanaki, said that they are ready to continue their action until the winter, if necessary.

   

"Anything is better than going back to Lebanon. We Palestinians would die there in any case."

However, police have doubts

as to whether or not the men really are Palestinians. In all dealings with Finnish officials they have said that their nationality is Lebanese. Officials now suspect that they could be claiming to be Palestinians as an attempt to win public sympathy for their cause.

   

The group hope to make people aware of the decision to deport them. The choice of Uspensky Cathedral as the location of their protest was no coincidence: the group felt that the church was the safest possible location for religious reasons. They say that they can sense the presence of God there.

Commenting on the long processing time

of the applications, police said that the men had taken measures to deliberately draw out the process. For instance, at one point they said that they had lost their valid passports.

   

Producing new immigration documents and passports is time-consuming. Usually the deportation process for rejected asylum applications lasts between two and three months.