Approximately 500 people in a Coastal Georgia immigration detention center are on a hunger strike, protesting conditions at the facility as well as what they say are violations of asylum protocols by U.S. authorities, according to family members and legal representatives.

Samantha Hamilton, senior litigation staff attorney at Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta (AAAJ), said most of the people participating in the civil disobedience came to the United States seeking asylum from authoritarian and repressive national governments. The hunger strikers say they were following the legal process for their immigration claims, yet have been at the privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Folkston for months or years awaiting judicial hearings.

The hunger strike is the latest controversy at the Charlton County facility, which is run by The GEO Group and, despite numerous complaints about unsafe conditions, is expanding to become the largest ICE detention center in the nation.

“There’s nothing illegal about seeking asylum. There’s nothing illegal about seeking sanctuary,” said Hamilton. “So this is just the natural next step in a long-time struggle of people being detained at this facility.”

Hamilton said that as of Oct. 8, around 372 men confined to Folkston’s F building and K5 pod are participating in the hunger strike, along with an estimated 150 more detainees in other buildings.