The Office is filling hundreds of places in our camps called closed centres; places that had been made available on the occasion of the raids announced at the North Station and in Parc Maximilien.
After the mobilisation of the platform and following the police interventions, the Foreigners Office chose to organise raids in a more discrete way, on their migratory routes. Several dozens of them have been arrested the last weeks and find themselves in closed centres today, others were released after hours spent in confinement cells, and after being subject to violence not far from torture.
They filled our camps one after the other: on 23 May it was Vottem, on the 24th Merksplas and on the 25th Bruges.
According to our last assessment, 70 of the 85 retainees in our camps had been released, be it in Belgium or in another European country, sometimes after having been retained for several months. After their release, many of them resumed their migratory journey to Great-Britain or another European country. http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/the-hosts-their-guests-and-the-decision-makers-10052018/
It will most likely be the case for the newly arrested people.
One may wonder what the use of these raids and retentions is. Is it to discourage all asylum seekers and undocumented, to increase the numbers of ‘illegals’ to deport, to reassert the ‘strict but fair migration policy’ so dear to Theo Francken ?
At the closed centre 127bis, the situation remains explosive, hunger strikes started at the beginning of the May and they seem to be ongoing although we get very few information after the heavy pressure on the retainees not to have contacts with the outside.Some ‘recalcitrant’ retainees have been retained for one month in a confinement cell, others are in medical confinement. An epileptic man is in a worrying state of health.
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/epileptic-crisis-and-hunger-strike-at-the-127bis-closed-centre-14052018/
At the Caricole centre, 5 retainees escaped. One of them has been tagged as islamist by Theo Francken…
As a reminder, a man had been retained for several months in Vottem, suspected of being a terrorist. He was finally released… His interview: http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/testimony-by-an-extremely-dangerous-terrorist/
No to closed centres, no to camps for migrants
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/closed-centres-our-camps-for-migrants-may-2018/
