05/11/2022
We are regularly alerted to hunger and sometimes thirst strikes in the various centres. Some of them demand their release, considering their imprisonment unjust. Others refuse to be deported to a country to which they do not want to or cannot return. These actions represent for them a final means of resistance when there is no other way out. The management of the centres calls these actions acts of rebellion.
We report here on the last communication we received.
A detainee of Albanian nationality who has been held in the Merksplas detention centre for 5 months has been on hunger strike for more than 25 days. Currently in isolation, his health is very precarious. For the last two nights, he has decided to sleep on the floor to protest against the management of the detention centre, which does not allow him to share morning yard time with the other inmates. In the conversation he had a few days ago with the director, he repeated that he would rather die in his cell in Belgium than be deported to his country where he risks losing his life.
