12/01/2025
We have learned from fellow inmates that two minor boys of Afghan origin have been taken to the 127bis detention centre in Steenokkerzeel, where one has been held since 23 December 2024 and the other since 3 January 2025.
They are respectively 16 and 17 years old (born in 2007 and 2008).
They both have documents proving their status as minors, but the Immigration Office does not recognise the validity of these documents. The Office requested a bone test, following which their ages were defined as 21 and 18 and a half. The Office therefore considers them to be adults, which justifies their detention in a closed centre while awaiting deportation.
They were locked up in the centre because they had left their fingerprints in Croatia and Austria respectively, the countries in which they had applied for asylum. Under the Dublin Regulation, which stipulates that the country of entry into Europe is responsible for asylum applications, the Immigration Office wants to deport them both to these countries.
In terms of their reliability, bone tests are scientifically highly debated and show large margins of error.
The medical research* used in Belgium has been heavily criticised by the medical community. It dates back to outdated research carried out under very different circumstances and for very different purposes. For example, bone tests do not take into account differences in bone growth that are due to ethnicity, experiences of poverty and trauma, pregnancy, environment, etc. However, several studies indicate that each of these factors has an impact on the bone growth of adolescents. These tests can lead them to be estimated as older or younger than they actually are.
* Full article (in French): https://mineursenexil.be/files/Image/Tierce-intervention-evaluation-age-mena-avec-couv.pdf
In the centre
The atmosphere in centre 127bis is currently very tense.
Detainees are complaining of serious violence from the guards, and are being systematically put in solitary confinement as soon as a detainee shows any reaction. Showers have been cut off for several days, prompting prisoners to go on hunger strike for a day in protest. Attempts to deport prisoners are often made by surprise, without issuing a plane ticket beforehand. Detainees suffering from mental imbalances are held in solitary confinement. Detaining minors only adds to the stressful and violent atmosphere of confinement.
Co-detainees warn us:
“One of the young boys cries all the time. He’s really suffering.”
“We no longer believe in justice.”
The fellow inmates of the two young boys all express their deep concern about their presence in the centre. Imprisonment and deportation should never happen to anyone, but such pressure and violence are all the more worrying for minors.
The Délégué général aux droits de l’enfant, SOS Jeunes and the Mineurs en Exil platform have been warned.
Let’s put pressure on those responsible for the release of these two young people by sending them emails!
Nicole de Moor, Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration (info.demoor@demoor.fed.be)
The Immigration Office (infodesk@ibz.fgov.be)
Annelies Verlinden, Minister of the Interior (info@verlinden.belgium.be)
The Federal Ombudsman (integrite@mediateurfederal.be)
Email template to send:
[SUBJECT]: Protest against the presence of two under-age boys in a detention centre
Dear Sir/Madam […],
Since 23 December 2024 and 3 January 2025, two minors of Afghan origin have been detained in the 127 bis closed centre in Steenokkerzeel. They are respectively 16 and 17 years old (born in 2007 and 2008). We ask you to question their presence in the detention centre as a matter of urgency.
Although both are in possession of documents proving their status as minors, they have been assessed as adults by the Immigration Office following a medical test. The reliability of these medical tests, which involve examining a person’s bones to determine their age, is highly controversial within the medical community. For example, bone analyses do not take into account differences in bone growth due to ethnic origin, poverty, trauma, pregnancy, etc. Yet each of these factors is known to have an impact on bone growth in adolescents. As a result, the analyses can lead to an erroneous determination of age, i.e. these people are estimated to be older or younger than they actually are*.
It is unacceptable that two young boys aged 16 and 17 are detained here and threatened with deportation. Their fellow detainees testify to their fragile mental state and express their concern about the inhumane conditions of detention in closed centres. I ask you to guarantee their safety and protection immediately.
Thank you in advance for your reply and for your consideration,
[SIGNATURE FIRST AND LAST NAME]
