A detainee with whom we are in contact told us that, recently, several detainees from different countries had been asked to come to the social worker’s office without being informed of the reason for their summons.
Once in the office, the social worker had ‘closed the doors’ (in his own words) and told the detainee concerned that he was about to be deported.
The detainee was then transferred directly to the “cachot”and deprived of his telephone. The detainee was then isolated, with no contact with his family and no possibility of independent legal advice.
He was then promptly transferred to the airport.
It goes without saying that this practice puts a great deal of pressure on the detainee concerned. Caught off guard, he is not able to find out or make use of his rights in the face of this forced expulsion.
The other detainees live in fear of being subjected to the same procedure. It should be remembered that many of them claim to be in great danger if they are sent back to their country of origin.
This same detainee told us about another appalling practice: a detainee was persuaded to take a covid test because he was due to be transferred to another centre and that this would save him quarantine in his new centre. Once the test was carried out, he was immediately given a return ticket. The same practise were tell us by our friends from the CRACPE in the closed centre in Vottem Last update closed centre : https://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/news-from-the-detention-centers-in-belgium-june-18-2021/
