Bruges closed centre: 14 people placed in confinement cells on 14 June 2019
Last Friday, 14 June 2019, around 11 p.m., a wind of disobedience led a group of retained to organise a small but heroic riot in the wings B and C of the closed centre in Bruges.
That night, around 20 retained were watching a football match and had been allowed to watch it until the end by the director. However, the guards of that day decided to prevent them from doing so. The detained found it unfair and said it. There were arguments… The director decided to call the police and 20 police officers arrived. First, 4 retained were indicated as ‘leaders’ by the director and they were placed into confinement cells.
Two of those ‘leaders’ were transferred into the secured wing of the closed centre in Vottem this Sunday, after 36 hours of confinement already.
Other sources speak of 14 people being placed in confinement cells that night. The co-retained seem not to be willing or able to tell us what happened over the phone and are most probably under pressure by the management.
Once again censorship rules and makes it impossible to know what is happening in these no-go areas.
We are worried for the retained who are still being kept into confinement and we haven’t heard from them since then. Indeed, it is frequent that some are kept illegally in confinement for more than 24 hours. Confinement for ‘disciplinary reasons’ is a measure often used by the managers of the centres during riots. They are not obliged to motivate the decision up to 24 hours of confinement. Passed that deadline, the management is obliged to transfer the motivation to the General Director of the Foreigners Office for approval.
Because the State organises raids on foreigners so as to imprison them, and because any attempt to revolt in order to protest against the dehumanising conditions they suffer is automatically repressed:
Let’s support the fight of retained people in the centres.
Down with closed centres, down with borders, and solidarity will all the prisoners!
Long live the struggles of all the retained persons who suffer repression by the State and their guardians!
