For 10 who go to Great Britain, for 10 who get arrested and retained by the Foreigners Office, 20 others arrive to the North Station. They are communicating vessels! It is the law of supply and demand in this capitalist world we are living in.
North station became the obligatory passage on their migratory road, to find their community, take part in this migratory adventure, find a means of passage, a small job, eat enough, find a shelter for the night etc.
From December 2017 to May 2018 (5 months), we received 80 reportings of retained people: http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/the-hosts-their-guests-and-the-decision-makers-10052018/
From 15 May till 15 July (2 months) we did better: total retentions reported: 98
This increase is certainly linked to the collaboration of the hosts and gettingthevoiceout, but also to the migrants’ hunting that goes crescendo. Retainees report raids in all the country, mainly on parking places, harbours and train stations.
Non exhaustive list of the different raids:
26/04 Waremme , 03/05 North station , 03/05 Gent , 10/05 North station , 16/05 North station, 16/05 Wetteren, 22/05 Thieu, 22/05 St Ghislain , 23/05 Asse, 27/05 North station , 31/05 Zeebruges 17 arrests , 31/05 Thieu, 04/06 North station, 13/06 North station
The nationalities chosen by the office for the retentions are Sudanese, Erythrean, Ethiopian, Iraqi, Lybian, Syrian, Egyptian…
At least 49 in 98 of these retained people were released in Belgium or in a European country.
23 were released after several weeks of retention (up to 12 weeks).
26 others were deported to their Dublin country. The big majority joined Belgium and their host families or the Maximilien parc in the following days.
Dublin returns : Denmark 1, Romania 1, Switzerland 6, the Netherlands 2, France 4, Germany 7, Italy 4, Norway 1
35 are still being retained, some for more than 3 months, and their hosts are still maintaining the visits.
14 families stopped giving news from their guests, probably because they have been released or deported to a Dublin country.
Not forgetting the undocumented arrested at their home, in public transports, at the Foreigners Office, the travellers arrested in airports for administrative reasons and considered as ‘inadmissible’, and the asylum seekers who are more and more frequently retained in the Caricole closed centre.
Words by a retainee at the 127 bis on 14 July 2018
« Wings reserved to men are overcrowded. A lot of arrivals for the last 2 weeks and many persons arrested during a convocation at the Foreigners Office.
Some were in open centres and did not get any notification on the reasons of their arrest. »
There have been migrations since the world has been turning. The more the obstacles, the barriers and the military forces, the more attractive Europe will be.
LET’S OPEN FRONTIERS
