Guantanamo Bay hunger striker Omar Deghayes is being pinned down and force-fed through a tube pushed down one of his nostrils, his lawyer has claimed.

Clive Stafford-Smith said yesterday the 36-year-old Saltdean graduate, and other inmates, had been shackled by the arms and legs for at least 30 days while their stomachs were pumped with high-energy concentrates in an attempt to defeat their hunger strike, now in its 57th day. Mr Stafford-Smith, who represents 40 Guantanamo Bay detainees, said: "The military have admitted there are 21 people in hospital being force fed, which they are calling assisted feeding.

"They are force feeding them in hospital beds, shackled by at least one hand and one leg to the bed.

"In July during the previous hunger strike they put needles in their arms.

This time they have used nasal tubes so they must be restraining them by both hands and legs to prevent them from ripping the tubes out.

"To imagine my clients being held in four-point restraints with a tube forced down their noses, after all that they have been through, just makes me sick.

"All these prisoners are asking for is that the US military abide by the Geneva Conventions."

More than 200 detainees, many of whom have been kept at the US military base in Cuba without charge for more than three years, have refused to accept food until they are given fair trials.

Six of the ten British residents being held at the prison are believed to be taking part in the protest, including Mr Deghayes.

He was granted refugee status in the UK after fleeing Libya with his family in the Eighties when his father was assassinated.

Mr Deghayes has been held at Guantanamo Bay since being arrested while visiting Pakistan in 2002.

The Argus is campaigning for the Government to intervene in his case and lobby for him to be granted a fair trial in accordance with international law.

Although he is a British resident, Mr Deghayes did not get a British passport when his mother, brothers and sister applied for theirs and, so far, he has had no help from the British authorities.

Yesterday Amnesty International director Kate Allen, told a Press conference in London: "Reports emerging from the camp concerning the treatment of hunger strikers are disturbing and underline the need for an immediate resolution of Guantanamo Bay.

"We need to see the UK Government intervening to prevent deaths and injuries and to see that all detainees, including at least six UK residents on hunger strike, are either properly tried or immediately released in accordance with international human rights law.

"We have seen British citizens released back to the UK and we now want British residents to become a central concern of the Prime Minister.

"He must not hide behind the fact they don't have passports. The UK has a moral responsibility."

Trevor Turner, consultant psychiatrist and clinical director at Homerton University and St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, said the military would be able to keep the hunger strikers alive for as long as they wanted by force feeding high-energy concentrates into the stomach via a tube two or three times a day.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has described the conditions as "tantamount to torture".

All nine British nationals originally detained at Guantanamo have now been flown back to the UK and released without charge.