Version imprimableThe outgoing Vivaldi federal government (with Ecolo and the PS) has meekly taken over the construction of three closed centres, including a 200-place closed centre in Jumet by 2028, which would make it the largest detention centre in Belgium, with the support of the Charleroi authorities (PS and Paul Magnette).
The closed centres are veritable transit prisons before detainees are deported by plane from Belgian territory, not for any criminal offences they have committed, but solely for reasons of migration.
These prisons are disgraceful in terms of respect for rights and procedures, as well as in terms of detention conditions: a glaring lack of staff, including carers, an invasion of bedbugs, harassment and recurrent violence, self-mutilation and suicide attempts, disinformation campaigns and incitement to voluntary deportation.
These prisons are the result of a violent migration policy dictated by the extreme right, based on the exploitation, detention and deportation of people dispossessed of their dignity and humanity by a capitalist and neo-colonialist system.
The anti-capitalist left supports the struggle of undocumented migrants for a genuine migration policy that includes :
– Open borders (‘Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state’ = Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
– Freedom of movement and settlement for everyone, including non-Europeans, with equal rights (no one is illegal)
– Regularisation of the status of all undocumented migrants
– The dismantling of closed centres (using the money recovered to improve the reception of asylum seekers fleeing our economic, military and climate disorder)
