Nine illegal immigrants from Tunisia and Morocco are detained in Italy have stitched their lips together with thread from their bedsheets in a protest to demand their release from what they say are intolerable living conditions, reports Yahoo!

The protest started at a center near Rome and came days after video emerged of immigrants at another camp standing naked in the cold to be sprayed for scabies. The incident drew new calls for the closure of detention centers and for changes to Italy’s immigration laws.

Filiberto Zaratti, a lawmaker who visited the protesters, told Reuters that four Tunisians each used a needle improvised from a cigarette lighter to make a single stitch to join their lips in the middle.

According to the center’s manager, five Moroccans later imitated the gesture. All of protesters have asked to be let out of the center.

“Italy has borne the brunt of a wave of immigration to the European Union, with more than 40,000 people risking the dangerous sea crossing from northern Africa this year – almost four times as many as last year,”reports Yahoo!

Under the current law, illegal immigrants can be held for up to 18 months while awaiting deportation.

The protesters have been able to eat and drink. They have also been examined by a doctor, said Zaratti, from the opposition Left Ecology and Freedom party, who described living conditions in the centers as shameful.

“That people were forced to such an extreme form of protest reflects their desperation,” he said. “These structures should be closed immediately.”

The video of naked detainees being sprayed was on the island of Lampedusa, first destination of many of the migrants, where hundreds died in a shipwreck in October.

To protest against the living conditions at the Lampedusa center Moroccan-born Democratic Party(PD) lawmaker Khalid Chaouki barricaded himself inside.

“You can’t stay silent before such a clear violation of the law,” Chaouki said on his Facebook page. “The conditions are so bad that they fail to respect the immigrants’ basic human rights.”

Chaouki said he would stay in the center until “legality is restored.”

According to the immigration spokesman of the main party in the ruling coalition, the center-left PD, said the government would ease immigration laws in 2014.