A hunger strike by 18 foreign inmates, which started on Monday, was yesterday called off.

The prisoners stopped the action after a meeting with the prison director, where they were told their demands would be discussed, sources told Times of Malta.

The inmates included four Nigerians, two from the Dominican Republic, one from Brazil, one from Ghana, a Dutchman, an Italian, a Liberian, a Polish and a Portuguese.

They were claiming unequal treatment and made three demands to the prison authorities: that they benefit from an amnesty longer than the 100 days just given by the Government, that the fines imposed on them by the courts should be forgiven and that they be allowed to remain in Malta once they served their time.

In a three-page letter received by Times of Malta, the inmates complained that they were treated differently to Maltese fellow prisoners.

They said that when a Maltese person was found guilty, the court took into account the clean conduct sheet and opted for a reduced punishment. But this did not happen with foreigners as “no one cares about checking whether they ever had a criminal record anywhere,” the inmates said.

In the letter they also complained about the lack of integration programmes for foreign inmates and the exaggeratedly long jail terms that became even longer when hefty fines were converted into time behind bars.

Another complaint was about the lack of proper medical treatment. They said many of them had asked to continue serving time in their home country but the request was rejected.

A Home Affairs Ministry spokeswoman said inmates had a right to strike and would not face disciplinary proceedings.