09/09/2024
Since July, inmates at 127bis detention centre (Steenokkerzeel) have been alerting us to a critical situation: an infestation of bedbugs in the bedrooms and living areas. Similar alerts have been issued for other detention centres, including Merksplas and Bruges. Prisoners have long complained that no comprehensive strategy has been adopted to deal effectively with the problem. Apart from transfers from one wing to another, nothing is being put in place. And relocation is pointless, since the entire building is infested and occupied to maximum capacity. The situation continues to deteriorate: some of the staff at 127bis have even gone on strike in protest at the critical sanitary conditions.
Last night, the inmates informed us that around fifteen of them were refusing to go back up to their rooms because of the bedbugs, and wanted to spend the night outside in protest. Several police vans with dogs were called in. The management offered the inmates a transfer to another wing, but they refused. The police eventually left, fortunately without violence.
The inmates spent the night outside, protected as best they could from the rain by a covered area. They camp outside, with mattresses and blankets.
- “They have to close this centre. Or destroy it, but we can only dream about that. At the very least, it needs to be renovated and disinfected.
- “It’s getting really urgent. This is no way to live, it’s affecting us mentally as well as physically.”
