03/02/2019
Currently, we very (too) often get messages from hosts who warn us that their guests in closed cenres are not doing well: they are exhausted, depressed, desperate, ill, they do not feed themselves anymore etc. Some complain about the racism shown by the staff and about different pressures.
With no real direct testimonies from the persons concerned, we can not really say much more (we encourage the hosts to send us small articles with the stories of the retainees), but it is not difficult to imagine what it is like for the retainees to be waiting for the fate the Foreigners Office reserve for them.
We also heard that many Sudanese people are currently selected for retention and it seems that some are forced to give their fingerprints and to request asylum against their will; a procedure we already could observe last year when ‘lord’ Francken tried to launch deportations to Sudan. http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/illegal-massive-deportation-attempts-to-sudan/
Besides, the carousel of entries and exists goes on:
Here is an overview of the retentions for January 2019 :
131 arrests notified by hosts
84 arrested and released several days later among whom 11 declare themselves minors and 3 who are legally recognised as refugees in a European country
48 still are being retained on 2 February 2019
To be noted too:
*15 are being retained for the second time, 3 for the third time, one for the 5th time!
* the Dublin returns have been very rare this month (3 as far as we know);
* 2 women were deported to Ethiopia by force, tied and gagged by their escort (an old woman and another woman of Erythrean nationality) after being retained for several months in a closed centre.
* a lot of Afghans have been retained in closed centres for several months, and some were deported lastly to Afghanistan.
Let’s continue fighting against closed centres and deportations
Planet Earth belongs to all.
Let’s break borders down!
As a reminder: Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Article 13. DEveryone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.https://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf
