On 29 July, a man detained at the Merksplas detention centre (Antwerp) alerted us that the detainees there were suffering from insect bites.
“We’re scratching ourselves all over. Please do something.”
The infestation began in one of the centre’s blocks (block 3). One of the detainees told us today that a fellow detainee from that block had just been transferred to another centre, covered in bites.
“We found bedbugs in two rooms. They were closed, but not the others.”
“I’ve been scratching for three days.”
“There’s no food, no medical service, people are sick, people are suffering.”
“It’s shit here.”
Almost a year ago, people locked up in the Merkplsas centres, as well as in Bruges and Steenokkerzeel (127bis), already informed us of a similar health situation1. They told us: ‘It’s becoming unbearable,’ pointing to the passivity of the staff in the face of this serious problem.
Following this, last September, several people detained at 127bis organised a protest to voice their demands2:
“They have to close this centre. Or destroy it, but that’s just a dream. At the very least, it needs to be renovated and disinfected. […] It’s becoming really urgent. This is not a life, it affects us mentally and physically.”
Around 15 people decided to spend a night outside in the rain to protest against the unacceptable conditions.
The Merksplas detention centre (in operation since 1994) is one of six detention centres in Belgium. Recently, the government invested €5 million to renovate one of the blocks and increase the detention capacity by 40 new places3. This work has just been completed. In total, the Merksplas detention centre can now hold up to 180 people.
To mark the inauguration of this renovated block, we learned from an article in the Flemish media outlet HLN that a cynical simulation exercise was staged in which a undocumented person was brutally treated while resisting, in the presence of the Minister for Asylum and Migration, Anneleen Van Bossuyt. The latter made the odious statement after the exercise that it is ‘not that easy to put undocumented migrants on a plane’. No mention, of course, of the difficulties of life in a detention centre for those detained there by the Belgian state, nor of the violence of deportations, nor of the current health situation.
While millions of euros are being invested by the government in strengthening the detention and deportation system, those locked up must try to survive in rooms infested with bedbugs. These appalling living conditions give us an idea of the level of dehumanisation of border management policies.
Freedom for all people in detention!
1https://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/bedbugs-in-several-detention-centres-merksplas-bruges-127-bis/
