Three years ago today, on 15 February 2023, Tamazi Rasoian died in the Merksplas detention centre. He was 38 years old.
The spokesperson for the Immigration Office at the time mentioned a ‘natural death’. Three years later, we remind everyone that there is nothing natural about this death. Belgian institutions have every interest in absolving themselves of responsibility for the deaths, injuries and assaults that occur within these repressive and racist establishments that are detention centres. Three years later, we remind you that they are the guilty ones, they are the ones responsible.
Tamazi Rasoian had been detained in Merksplas for several weeks. The 38-year-old Kurdish man had gone on hunger strike to protest against his detention and deportation to Georgia. He was then placed in solitary confinement, a common practice in detention centres to repress and break resistance.
Tamazi Rasoian arrived in France in 2017 after fleeing torture in Georgia and was living there with his partner and daughter. He was granted refugee status in 2019, but this was revoked in 2020.
In December 2022, he travelled to Belgium, where he was arrested at the end of January 2023. Locked up in the Merksplas detention centre, he was initially to be returned to France under the Dublin Regulation*. However, France refused to take him back, arguing that he could not prove that he had left its territory less than six months earlier. The Immigration Office then decided to deport him to Georgia, where he had been tortured.
On the day of his scheduled deportation, 8 February 2023, Tamazi Rosoian attempted suicide. His daughter claims that he was in great pain and in a state of psychological distress. She had alerted his lawyer to his condition, but no care measures were put in place by the centre’s staff. Fellow detainees claimed that he had received several injections of antipsychotics, the cardiac side effects of which can be very serious or even fatal, especially when one is undernourished. The day before his death, Tamazi had significant motor problems and was struggling to walk. He did not have access to basic care: his partner claims that she had to bring her own supplies to disinfect his wounds on 14 February.
The Immigration Office stated at the time: ‘The deceased was seen half an hour before his death by a member of the medical staff.’ However, at the morgue, the family noticed wounds on his chest, ear, forehead and elbow. These findings were confirmed by Mediapart, which had access to the images. There was also blood on the last vest he wore before he died. It should be noted that Tamazi regularly complained about the treatment he received from his guard (even though he had been tortured in Georgia): ‘This is not normal, we are in Europe,’he said.
After news of his death spread throughout the centre, Tamazi’s fellow detainees expressed their grief and anger through a protest movement, which culminated in half of Block 3 being placed in solitary confinement. Some people nevertheless continued with hunger strikes.
Tamazi’s case highlights not only the lack of access to healthcare, but also the security role played by ‘care’ staff. Placing people in psychological distress in isolation is common practice in detention centres.
After Tamazi’s death was announced, a fellow detainee whose comments were reported by the media outlet InfoMigrants said: ‘They are not doctors, they are veterinarians. It’s as if they talk to us like animals, even if some of them speak more calmly.’
Tamazi’s family filed a complaint and brought a civil action after his death, seeking justice and truth, and to shed light on the circumstances of his death. Even today, they are still demanding access to the video surveillance recordings and his medical records. Following the trial, the case was dismissed and neither the center’s staff nor the Immigration Office was prosecuted.
This death is the consequence of the entire border system based on control, deprivation of liberty, administrative and physical violence, and dehumanisation.
Detention centres are places of death.
The Immigration Office has blood on its hands. The Belgian state has blood on its hands.
JUSTICE FOR TAMAZI
NEVER FORGET, NEVER FORGIVE
DOWN WITH DETENTION CENTRES
DOWN WITH DEPORTATIONS
DOWN WITH BORDERS
LIFE AND FREEDOM FOR ALL
*The Dublin Regulation is a European Union law that determines the single Member State responsible for examining an asylum application (usually the first country of entry into the EU). One of the consequences of this system for those affected is that they have no choice as to which country to apply to as long as this regulation applies in their case (i.e. for 6 or 18 months), and they are therefore at risk of being deported to the ‘Dublin’ country.
https://www.cotizup.com/justicepourtamazi
https://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/death-at-merksplas-closed-centre-after-hunger-strike-15-02-2023/
