FILM director Ken Loach has sent his solidarity and support to the more than 7,000 Kurdish hunger strikers around the world.

The veteran film-maker has previously been outspoken in support of the London Kurdish Film Festival and the Kobane International Film Festival.

The hunger strikers are demanding that the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan be allowed his basic rights to visits by his family and lawyers. Mr Ocalan has been in solidarity confinement in a Turkish prison and has not spoken to anyone since 2011.

In a letter jointly signed by screenwriter Paul Laverty and Scottish Solidarity with Kurdistan committee member Sarah Glynn, Mr Loach said: “For so many to be driven to hunger strikes for basic human rights is a collective act of principled courage.

“It puts to shame all those states who refuse to enforce international law and end the brutal oppression suffered by Ocalan.

“Regardless of political allegiance, denial of a prisoner’s basic human rights can never be acceptable. Yet again our political institutions have failed and it is left to ordinary people to take the lead in international solidarity.”

A majority of the hunger strikers are political prisoners in Turkey, but also include Imam Sis in Wales — who has gone without food for 120 days — and three others in London.

Inspired by Turkish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) MP Leyla Guven who began her protest in November, the hunger strikers are calling on the Council of Europe and the Committee for the Prevention of Torture to take action, saying they are prepared to take their strike “through to the end.”