“BACK TO LIFE AFTER CHRISTMAS AT CARICOLE”
A man wrote to us that he came to Belgium to celebrate the Christmas with his sister and had a valid visa. He was arrested at the airport, detained in the Caricole centre and sent back to his country!
He sent a message to the Belgian government:
‘Africa is not hell, we live there in dignity and with joyfulness. Not all of us dream for Europe, so if you grant us a visa, please treat us with honour.’
RETURN TRIP
One Algerian man has rang us to explain that he was detained for one month in Bruges and then deported to Switzerland (Dublin), but now he is back in Belgium again.
One Moroccan man who had been deported to Morocco tells us that he is back here and he had a pleasant journey!
IMPRISONMENT
A young Brazilian boy, 18, has been detained in Merksplas for almost three months now.
With the help of his lawyer they introduced a request for his release a few weeks ago and they have won their case. When he was ready to leave, had packed his luggage and was ready to join his family, his girlfriend, etc then he got the news that the Foreigners Office has appealed against the decision.
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/we-are-living-like-animals-here-and-suicide-attempt-in-closed-center/
He has losted and the judge sentenced that he has to be sent back to Brazil. As always, the justice is doing its work, playing with the people’s life for sake of the freedom. He accepted to go back to Brazil the soonest as possible. He will come back very quickly to Belgium but he will fight for this time.
A man from Nepal has been detained for several months in the 127bis centre. Big gatherings and protests were happened in the court and in the airport as well, mainly thanks to his Nepalese friends. He is still detained, trapped in an infernal administrative circus.
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/expulsion-call-for-kumar-on-saturday-22122012/
We have got a call from an Algerian man who is detained in Vottem; expplusion attempt was taken to deport him through a name he doesn’t belong to and a photo of him also taken at the 127bis. He refused it because it was not him on the papers (except the picture).
MOVEMENTS IN THE CLOSED CENTRES
Vottem : Detainees from the centre put their claims during the Christmas gathering in Vottem.
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/communication-from-the-detainees-of-vottem-closed-centre/
One of the persons who took part in drafting and distribution of this letter was attempted to deport right after. Following the first attempt he remained in an isolation cell for 24 hours and after they tried to deport him again. ‘They did that to weaken me and make me to leave more easily, but I resisted.’ The third deportation attempt will be send him back to Morocco.
Merksplas : ‘Each and everyone deserves their dignity’: 48 hours in isolation cell
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/closed-centre-of-merksplas-2611-solidarity-can-be-very-expensive-in-prisons/
RELEASED
A stateless man for many years has been detained for more than four months, at first at a closed centre in Merksplas and then in Bruges. He was finally released this 3rd of January. In the closed centres, he showed a lot of solidarity with his co-detainees; hence he spent several times in an isolation cell and got transferred to another centre.
Another good example of ‘mistake’ by the Foreigners Office of the terror that the State imposes to those who are not ready to leak its boots with which it beats them.
A Turkish/Kurdish woman spent several months in the closed centre in Bruges and was finally released through an energetic lawyer. Thanks to him.
A Tamil man detained for 3 months in the 127bis closed centre got released through a a mobilisation action in Antwerp. Thanks to them as well.
http://tamilsolidariteit.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/thas-krijgt-politiek-asiel-en-is-vrij/#more-269
COLLECTIVE FLIGHT TO CONGO :
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/news-from-the-collective-deportation-towards-the-congo-on-december-6th-2012/
VIOLENCE
The girlfriend of a detainee tells us how her boyfriend had to go through:
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/he-is-not-dead-yet-if-you-want-to-know/
A young Afghan suffered a highly violent deportation attempt and came back to the closed centre in Bruges with one broken rib.
Daily torture: a person suffering from hepatitis B has been detained for more than one month. The doctors of the centre refuse to give him the medicine at the hours required according to the treatment. They even had to wait for 3 days before he gets access for his medicine. « It is their way of torturing me (…), I tell them everyday, and I refuse to take my medicine at the wrong time but they don’t care at all… they are killing me step by step” he says.
ASYLUM
Clarisse tried to ring us several times to speak about the living conditions in the Caricole centre and about a movement project by the prisoners there. She very quickly disappeared and never answered the phone anymore. An attempt to visit her also failed. Later on we heard that she had been deported very fast.
Dallah, arrested at Zaventem airport in November 2012 was detained in the Caricole. Then he was transferred to Merksplas where he was subjected for his second deportation attempt. In spite of the threats, Dallah somehow managed to resist his second deportation attempt.
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/expulsion-call-for-kumar-on-saturday-22122012/
A man from Chechnya detained in Bruges is in a state of panic: he heard that a Chechnyan friend of him, has been deported last month and got executed in Russia.
