Inmates on hunger strike at French high-security prison for drug traffickers

Inmates at a French high-security prison for dangerous drug traffickers started a hunger strike this week to protest against their detention conditions, a Justice Ministry spokesperson said, confirming French media reports.

Inmates at a French high-security prison for dangerous drug traffickers started a hunger strike this week to protest against their detention conditions, a Justice Ministry spokesperson said, confirming French media reports. The strike at the Vendin-le-Vieil prison in the northern Pas-de-Calais region started on Monday. It was too early to say exactly how many inmates were part of the movement, he said.

"The prison is functioning, the inmates are restless, and that is precisely why they are attempting such an operation," the spokesperson said. "They are unsettled as they find themselves in a prison that is sealed off from the outside world, where they can no longer manage their trafficking from inside the prison as they did before."

He said the Justice Ministry would not "give in" but did not elaborate on the inmates' demands. French daily Le Figaro, citing a prison source, reported earlier this week that a few days after some prisoners flooded their cells with water, about 20 inmates in the first wing of the prison went on a hunger strike.

Eighty-eight convicted drug traffickers were transferred to the special wing of the prison in July as part of Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin's plans to toughen up prison conditions for some of France's most dangerous inmates.