B. has been detained for many months in a closed detention center. First at Merksplas, then at the 127bis. He has experienced coercion regarding his asylum application, a fairly common practice: people are pressured to file an asylum application before they even have a lawyer and the chance to prepare a defense. This ensures that after a rejection decision, which comes much more quickly in a detention center, they can be deported.
B. describes the unbearable nature of life in detention. The routine of a daily life that never changes, the feeling of being criminalized, the wait for an outcome that never comes, …
“I arrived in Belgium in September. I came to visit a friend. My buddy and I were just hanging out on the street, and the police came by for an ID check. We were just sitting there quietly, not doing anything.”
We went to the police station, and they held me in custody for 24 hours. The next day, the police put me in a car and took me back to the center in Antwerp, in Merksplas. When I got there, they told me, “This is a closed center for repatriation.” They explained the house rules to me.
The next day, the social worker came to see me and said, “Sir, they arrested you because you were here illegally; you didn’t apply for papers in Belgium.” Then they told me, “If you want to apply for asylum, if you don’t want to be deported to Guinea, you have the option. Either you apply for asylum, or we’ll deport you back to your country.” It was as if they’d forced me to apply for asylum. I said, “Okay, no problem. In that case, if I apply for asylum, will you take me back to France [where he has a residence permit]?” They told me, “Yes, yes.”
I applied for asylum. They made me talk for 30 minutes. First interview. Second interview. Two weeks later, they told me it was negative, “your asylum has been denied“.
They didn’t want to send me back to France. They kept me there for an identification process. A month goes by. Two months. Three months. Four months. Five months. Six months. Seven months. I’m still locked up.
They assign me lawyers who work with the government. I had a lawyer, but on the day of my asylum hearing, he didn’t even show up to defend me.
Then they transferred me to 127bis. I’m still here, locked up. Eight months is the limit for detention centers. It’s been eight months now. They haven’t followed the rules. They don’t want to release me. They give me lawyers who work on behalf of the Immigration Office.
My [French] residence permit expired while I was in the detention center. Now they want to deport me to my country of origin. Do you understand?
I ask the Belgian government to do whatever is possible to release me from this center and hand me over to the French authorities.
We’re being persecuted in a country that claims to uphold human rights. For me, human rights don’t exist here. Here they take innocent people and lock them up in detention centers. Their only “crime” is not having a residence permit or papers. Because of that, they divide people, treat us like foreigners, and mistreat us.
Here in the detention center, every day is the same routine. Eat, sleep. Eat, sleep. Even the food is terrible, terrible, terrible… You’re basically just eating to survive.
We get one hour of outdoor time a day. We’re locked up all day long. They treat us like criminals. Even when we ask for small things, like a small bottle of shampoo, not a big one, they put it in a little box… Even for that, you have to beg them first before they’ll give it to you.
I swear to you, people here are being mistreated. I’ve seen people here who’ve been locked up for 10 months. They don’t even follow the rules they set themselves.
Right now there are even minors locked up here.
I just can’t understand it. Normally, if you can’t deport someone, you should release them.
The Africans who arrive here have been locked up for eight months, ten months, some even twelve months, a whole year… The only crime they’ve committed is not having papers. There are people who’ve committed crimes, served time in prison, finished their sentences, we pick them up there, take them in, and lock them up just to get a residence permit. I don’t understand this system.
What we’re doing here in Belgium is modern-day colonization.
All of this really hurts me.”
B. was finally released after 8 months in detention! All for NOTHING.
SOLIDARITY WITH ALL THOSE BEHIND BARS
BURN DOWN THE PRISONS AND DETENTION CENTERS
FREEDOM FOR ALL
