They are arrested in the street, on public transport, in airports, at home, at the Foreigners Office, in open centres. Sometimes they are also transferred directly from a prison.
Street arrests: sometimes the local police raids people during what they call “routine” checks on the street or on pulic transport. These are often police in civilian clothes .
At Brussels Airport (Zaventem) or Charleroi, people who came on holiday to visit family (!) are taken to the Caricole detention centre and put on a return flight within 48 hours because their stay is considered “suspicious” by the federal police and the Foreigners’ Office, which thus validates the police racial profiling. Other people arrive at the airport as asylum seekers and some are also considered “suspicious” by the cops, and locked up in the Caricole centre.
Arrests at people’s home: after an request for regularisation, a request for marriage or co-habitation or a procedure for recognising a child, the administration of the concerned communemust register the official domicile. Very soon after the police arrive at the home to “carry out a control” and, if they consider people “suspicious”, arrest them and take them to a detention centre.
Dublin procedure: exiles who have been fingerprinted or who applied for asylum in another Schengen country will be sent back to that country. They are arrested either at the foreigners’ office (Office des Etrangers) when they apply for asylum again or when they receive convocation, or in the open centres when their Dublin deadline is out of date.
Nationals from Eastern European countries are being arrested and quickly deported.
Several testimonies that we received report forced deportationson a almost daily rate. Sometimes these deportations are very violent, to the extent that recently a woman had to be hospitalised on arrival in the country.
According to our observations and information, the following nationalities are currently present in great numbers in closed centres: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Guinea, Senegal, Surinam, Albania and several Eastern European countries. This is quite contradictory considering that some of these countries refuse to issue a “laissez-passer“ – or issue it sparingly (Guinea, Senegal, Algeria…).
So many have been locked up for up to one year and then finally released because of a lack of agreement with the country of origin.
These detentions and threats of deportation are a strategy of intimidation and propaganda directed at the exiles and the public, in order to continue to spread racist ideologies and criminalise foreigners.
STOP DEPORTATIONS
NO TO CLOSED CENTRES
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Help :
PHONE RECHARGES needed for the retainees in closed centres
We receive loads of requests for phone recharges from people retained in closed centres. Very often, their phone is the only way to contact the outside, be it their family, friends, lawyer, or to publicly inform on their situation. Whether their arrest took place on their migratory journey, in their home, whether their families and friends are here or in their home country, it is crucial for them to be able to warn and communicate with them. Without your support, they would be many incapable of doing so.
You may support these detainees by buying a 10 euros Lycamobile recharge from your grocery, night shop or bookshop. Send us the pin code written on the recharge by email at gettingthevoiceout@riseup.net or by SMS on 0032(0)484026781. We will then send the code to the detainees who asked for it. If it is easier for you, you may also pay, or even better set up a standing order of 5, 10, 20 euros or more on the bank account especially created for that purpose :
Collectif Contre Les Expulsions Banque Triodos BE58 5230 8016 1279 BIC: TRIOBEBB Communication: Lyca
