No women, men or children in the closed centre: testimony and action

No women, men or children in closed centres: testimonies and gathering

04/09/201: A mother and her 5 children, arrested the day of the start of school have just been placed in retetntion while another family with 4 children has already been retained for more than 20 days! 9 children are now being retained although we already know the devastating impact of retention on adults. How could we reach that point?!

Testimonies by these families’ relatives

Family 1
30/08/2018: “The youngest of the girls seems ill. She does not eat or drink. She was being breastfed until their arrival at the 127bis and needs to get used to different food. The doctor came and prescribed one cream … and the mother doesn’t understand. She can neither read nor write. The familly has been installed in two rooms but they live in the same one, the children stay near their mother. There is a small backyard, the only possibility for them to get out.
Children are not sleeping until 3 a.m sometimes. The mother is up all nights, struggling with loads of questions and worries about the family’s future. The oldest kids want to go to school.
It is not enough to answer the most basic needs such as sleep, eat and drink. This mother would need a psycho-medical follow-up. She speaks and thinks negatively. It is dehumanizing to live in that place, and she is reaching the verge of despair.
She lost her appetite and the fact of getting pork twice a day, although she clearly said she was a muslim, will not help her recover, she is full of mistrust.

Family 2 :
04/08/2018: ” The oldest kid is 14. They have been in Belgium for 8 years. They’ve all always gone to school here. They have their friends here, their life and future is here. Their schoolbags were ready for the start of school. Seven policemen went to fetch them at their place at 6 a.m. The mother got in the door to see what it was about. The police forced the door to enter… It is disgusting, it is just disgusting to treat people like that…’

Gathering on 14/09/2018

#NotInMyName: One mother and her five children who were arrested on the day of the start of school have just been retained, whereas another family with four children has already been retained for more than 20 days!  9 children are being retained although everybody already knows the devastating impact of retention on adults? How could we reach that point?! 

Despite the heavy citizen and associative mobilisation and the positions by the legal world and international authorities, the Belgian government persists in its criminalisation policy of migrants and does not hesitate to retain children. NOTHING CAN JUSTIFY THIS INHUMANE POLICY! 

?They do not want to listen to us ✊! Let’s meet for sit-ins and critical masses of pushchairs in one or several places of Brussels and in other cities of the country (we need you!) that will be announced as of next week. Bring pushchairs, prams, signs, dirty nappies or any other mean to express you’ve had enough of all this! 

Let’s continue to increase the pressure and assert loud and clear that the discriminatory, repressive and degrading measures taken by the Belgian governement against migrants, refugees and undocumented people or the people supporting them are not taken in our name. #NotInMyName #NoOneIsIllegal #StopCentresFermés

?Let’s meet to invade the public space with peaceful demonstrations to let our message go through and say STOP! 

WHEN?

On 14th September. It will be one month (maximum length) that the first family has been retained, and 10 days for the second one. The time will depend on the location. We will inform you in the coming days about the time and the location. 

WHERE?

✅ IN BRUSSELS:  the location (still secret) will be communicated in a few days. 

☑️ ELSEWHERE: we are calling you to organise decentralised sit-ins in front of your communes’ town halls or other symbolic places. Add us (solidary Manneken Pis) as co-organiser or send us the links of your events, we will share them! 

A small toolkit to help you organise them will soon be available. 

To follow the event:https://www.facebook.com/events/296524317599828/