Kurdish filmmaker and activist Gabar Choli says he was force-fed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while he was on a hunger strike in immigration detention. In accounts published by The Guardian, Choli describes being subjected to coercive treatment for about eight months, which he says occurred often twice a day after his asylum application was denied.
Choli, now living in Canada after deportation, says guards restrained him during the process and that it left lasting physical and psychological harm. He recounts being shackled and pinned, and describes injuries from the force-feeding procedure, including a torn nose. Human rights groups and other international observers commonly describe such force-feeding in this context as torture, a characterization Choli and the reporting reference.
The outlets focus on Choli’s first-person testimony: one presents the broader claim about the impact of the practice on his mental and physical state over the detention period, while the other provides more detailed scene-by-scene description of his treatment in ICE’s Port Isabel service processing center in south Texas.
