Belgium: Transit "concentration camp"
01 January 1995
The group Open Grenzen (open frontiers) has condemned the asylum centre 127 bis as a "concentration camp". The group says: "Asylum seekers are locked up for ten to fifteen days in pitch black isolation cells without being told why. Razor wire surrounding both the ground and on the fences has injured both children and adults". Minister John Vande Lanotte is to look into the matter.
The transit centre 127 bis in Steenokkerziel was opened in March last year to accommodate asylum seekers waiting to be repatriated. The former Minister of Internal Affairs, Louis Tobback, emphasised when opening the asylum centre that it was not intended to be a prison. However Open Grenzen, MPs and the French-language League for Human Rights in Belgium have come together to denounce Transit centre 127 bis as a flagrant abuse of human rights based on two internal notes sent to the administrative director (governor) of Transit centre 127 bis.
Jan Fermon, a lawyer active within Open Grenzen, said:
"We are shocked by the arbitrary use of isolation cells. Such cells are intended to allow violent or abusive asylum seekers to cool off. But Steenokkerziel has no rules or regulations for such isolation cells or the length of time people may be locked up in them. Asylum seekers can be thrown in such cells because of administrative problems. This happens for instance in cases where asylum seekers are refused entry by the country where they are sent to".
According to these reports isolation cells also serve as back up to the ordinary dormitories when there are not enough guards to look after all the asylum seekers. Asylum seekers also end up in these cells if an airline pilot refuses to take them because of "possible danger to other passengers".
The isolation cells measure 1.5 metres by three meters and only contain a bed. They do not have a table or a window or a toilet. The only way to use a lavatory is to ring for a guard, who often is not there. The memorandae sum up the situation by stating: "The conditions in the isolation cells are worse than in any prison". This impression is strengthened by the double row of barbed wire that surrounds the transit centre. According to the report children have been wounded by razor wire whilst playing as well as those asylum seekers who have tried to escape. Other complaints include the mysterious disappearance of inmates and obtrusive and unnecessary body searches.
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Johan Vande Lanotte said yesterday that he had not heard about these complaints: "We shall certainly look into the complaints. I will however continue to defend the existence of Transit Centre 127 bis and the isolation cells. 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 Morgen, 19.12.94