14/11/2017: The hunt for migrants in transit goes on in all the country. Every day we get alerts by hosts who lost their guests, their main worry being that they get arrested, retained and expatriated.
Controls and arrests continue but they are less visible: Sudanese, Erythreans, Ethiopians,…. are controlled and arrested more discretely in train stations in Brussels, Charleroi, Ostende, Bruges, Zeebruges or in trucks on their migratory road.
A few of the migrants who had disappeared then reappear a few days or weeks later. Some were arrested and then released. One current trend is that the authorities prefer to retain the Dublin cases who are much more easily identifiable and deportable.
Others disappear without giving any news, avoiding to be tracked by the authorities.
Others are sometimes found back in closed centres.
In closed centres they are still very badly welcomed: no telephone, no lawyer. We face loads of difficulties to get in touch with them because of the censorship of the centres’ management, because we ignore their exact names or alias, and because of their total mistrust in contacts with the outside. This prevents us from finding a lawyer who might introduce an appeal in extreme urgency, the deadline being of 5 or 10 days according to the case.
We respect this will of migrants to stay fully anonymous, but in some cases a fast appeal against their arrest may enable their release and the possibility to resume their migratory journey. We continue to wish them a SAFE TRIP.
If you host or are in contact with people who could find themselves in this situation, we invite to:
– speak to them about the possibilities of arrest and their consequences.
– explain the possible legal steps to follow during a retention: very rapidly introduce an appeal in extreme urgency or an asylum request
– arrange with them a way to contact someone to warn them of their arrest. They can call from the closed centre with the phone of a co-retainee (solidarity works very well among retainees) to a number remembered by heart.
– tell them to immediately warn if there is a deportation risk, either by contacting you, or by directly contacting Getting the Voice Out ( 0032(0)484026781) and the facebook group stop deportations info&actions to enable a mobilisation (see http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/comment-arreter-une-expulsion/)
– Send us any information useful to help find the arrested person, maintain a contact and understand the new tricks used by the Foreigners Office : gettingthevoiceout@riseup.net
MESSAGE we convey to the hosts who are worrying:
« If the person has been arrested, he/she should, within the coming hours, be released or be placed in a closed centre.
If you still do not get any news during the day, ring the Caricole Centre who have the list of all the retainees in the closed centre (you will have to insist!). Or, to be certain of the result, ring all the closed centres. But know that 24 hours at least should pass before one finds him/herself in a closed centre after an arrest.
Phone numbers:http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/quels-sont-les-centres-fermes-en-belgique/
If it is the first time he/she gets an order to leave the territory, we have 10 days to introduce an appel in extreme urgency. If he/she already got an order to leave the territory before, we only have 5 days left! Several lawyers are available but it all depends on the place where he/she got arrested, and in which centre he/she is retained.
Give us news!
Good luck!”
