Seventy one foreign prisoners in Buthidaung prison have gone on hunger strike to protest the insufficient food they are provided daily, after the UN rights envoy visited the prison, said a source close to the prison.

"In the Buthidaung prison, there are 71 foreign prisoners. When UN rights envoy Quintana visited the prison, the prison authorities confined them in their cells and did not allow them to meet him. After, which the foreign prisoners went on hunger strike," the source said.

The foreign prisoners are primarily Bangladeshi nationals, while some are Chinese, Thai, and Taiwanese.

"The foreign prisoners wanted to meet the UN envoy to convey their situation in the prison but they did not get the chance. They are facing many problems including insufficient food in the prison," the source said.

Many prisoners in Buthidaung, both foreign and Burmese nationals, have to depend on food brought by visitors from outside due to the insufficient and poor quality of food provided by the government.

However, the authorities do not allow the foreign prisoners to receive food from outside, leaving them to make do with prison rations.

A relative of a Burmese prisoner in Buthidaung said, "I heard that the foreign prisoners' went on hunger strike because they are angry with the prison authority's discrimination."

However, he said that he was not aware of the latest situation of the prisoners since the hunger strike began.

Buthidaung prison is in northern Arakan and is notorious in the state for the abuses perpetrated by prison authorities on prisoners.

Those on hunger strike in Buthidaung prison wanted to convey the situation of foreign prisoners so that the media in exile could air their story and catch the attention of rights groups as well as senior officials in Naypyidaw, the family source added.