Seven years ago this very same day, on 9 October 2018, we learned of the death of Gebre Mariam, a 36-year-old young man from Eritrea, who had been detained for four months at the Vottem detention centre (Liège).
The memory of Gebre’s death echoes the tragic suicide of Mahmoud just a few days ago.
Seven years later, detention centres are still just as destructive.
Gebre was threatened by the Belgian state with deportation to Bulgaria, a country that had granted him asylum and he refused to be deported back to. He had received an order for his release from the Council Chamber, but the Immigration Office had appealed against this release. He therefore remained in detention, fearing a new attempt at deportation. He had already suffered physical and racist violence in Bulgaria and feared for his life.
Grebre suffered greatly from his detention. A few hours before his suicide, his fellow detainees reported to the CRACPE (Collectif de Résistance aux Centres pour Étrangers) that he had been transferred to another wing by the center’s staff for an unknown reason and kept isolated in a room.
The news of Gebre’s tragic death devastated and deeply upset his co-detainees and other people of Eritrean origin in the centers. Four days after his death, 400 people gathered in his memory in front of the closed center in Vottem. Some people had red paint on their hands, carrying a clear message: “The state has blood on its hands”.
Let us remember that suicidal acts are unfortunately not uncommon in the extremely violent context of detention. We think of Mr A., of Ethiopian origin, who took his own life in March 2024 at 127bis, even though his mental distress was well known to the centre’s staff. We think of all the others, whose names we sometimes do not even know, who saw death as the only way to end the persecution by the Immigration Office. We also think of the all too many people who attempt suicide to express their suffering and despair caused by Belgian and European migration policies.
Suicides in detention centers and prisons are unlike any other act. Every year, the state deprives thousands of people of their lives, their loved ones, and their futures. Shame on the state and those who represent it!
More generally, we think of Gebre, Mawda, Baudouin, Semira, Tamazi, Mahmoud, and the countless (and too often unnameable) people who have died because of borders and prisons.
Today, seven years later, we have not forgotten you, Gebre. We do not forgive them.
NEVER FORGIVE, NEVER FORGET
NO TO CLOSED CENTRES
NO TO DEPORTATIONS
NO TO BORDERS
LIFE AND FREEDOM FOR ALL
