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Belgium: Asylum and immigration (1)

01 January 1991

Belgium: Asylum and immigration
artdoc April=1995

New transit centre is a concentration camp, says human rights
group

The asylum-support group `Open Frontiers' and the League for
Human Rights have described the asylum centre `127 bis' in
Steenokkerziel as a `concentration camp'.
`127 Bis' is a holding-centre for asylum-seekers awaiting
deportation. When it was opened in March 94, the then minister
of Internal affairs, Louis Tobback, stated that it was not a
prison. But Open Frontiers says that `asylum-seekers are locked
up for ten to fifteen days in pitch black isolation cells' and
that asylum-seekers, including children, have been injured by the
razor wire surrounding the fences that close off the grounds of
the detention centre.
In theory, isolation cells should only be used to allow violent
detainees a period in which to cool off. But, according to `Open
Frontiers', no rules or regulations have been used to govern the
use of cells, which measure 1.5-3 metres, and contain just a bed
with no window or toilet. In particular: · isolation cells have
been used as a back-up to ordinary dormitories when there are not
enough guards to oversee the asylum-seekers; · asylum-seekers
that airlines refuse to take on board are placed in isolation
cells when attempts to deport them are thwarted.
Other issues highlighted by `Open Frontiers' are the scant food
portions and the `mysterious disappearance of inmates and
obstructive and unnecessary body searches'.
The new minister of internal affairs, John Vande La Notte, has
said: `There is a lot of violence amongst asylum-seekers and
troublemakers must be forced to cool off. The double row of razor
wire is there to prevent escapes. I do admit that the difference
between a prison and a centre where people are being held against
their will is very subtle' (De Morgan 19.12.94).

IRR European Race Audit, Bulletin no 12, March 1995. Contact: Liz
Fekete, Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London
WC1X 9HS. Tel: 0171 837 0041