The means of repression that are used to lock up freedoms and maintain the order are many : precariousness, medication, intimidation, filing, torture, violence, imprisonment, etc… in detention centres, open centres, prisons, mental hospitals, return centres, closed centres for minors, etc. The fights against these forms of domination are very diverse. We opted for the fight on the ground of the ‘detention centres for foreigners’ (1). These prisons administratively detain migrants whom the government in power defines as ‘intruders’ or ‘undesirable’ who must be detained and deported because they dared treading upon the ‘sacred land’ of Europe one day.
Some associations and politicians speak about ‘humanising’ these centres. Yet, as long as it is about managing migration flows, it will be necessary to control the people who have the right to enter, stay or leave. Politicians will continue creating arbitrary differences between the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ migrants. Be it claimed human or not, this way of managing things will continue hiring soldiers and erecting barbed wire and walls – visible and invisible- to watch the European borders. Repression will happen every day and there will always be detained people in fear of an imminent deportation. No one may arrogate themselves the right to decide the way one can live or the places one is allowed to go to.
The access to information about closed centres is almost nonexistent. The only things we may hear through the main media are the points of view of the authorities that detain and deport, never the voice of the people who are subjected to these policies. The information still depends on the audience rating, the politically correct, and the interests of the government in power.
It is because of these observations that the web site www.gettingthevoiceout.org was born. The objectives of the site are to get the voice of the detainees out, to inform us on the conditions of their detention and deportation and to report the resistance actions they organise in those prisons. We also hope that anyone may take over this information to act against borders, against imprisonment and against all the bodies that directly or indirectly contribute to the deportation machinery.
We invite you to use, copy, and spread all the content available on this site and also to directly take part in it (through texts, comments, donations etc.). The group needs people to transcribe and translate the testimonies (ENG, FR, NL), to make audio editing but also to invest in the group, propose and implement new ideas.
(1) There are six in Belgium: the Caricole, the 127bis, the centres of Merksplas, Bruges, Vottem and the closed centrum for women in Holsbeek adress here. In addition, one may add the return centres, the open centres, the transit areas in the various airports, etc. that all contribute to the control and detention of migrants.
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If you decide to devote some of your time to our actions, contact us at gettingthevoice(at)riseup.net
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