Getting the voice out : Testimonies by people in closed centres
Gettin the voice out | 13.04.2012 14:39 | Migration | World
The new web site of gettingthevoiceout is now online at this new address: www.gettingthevoice.org
Getting the Voice Out is a website that compiles testimonies by people detained in closed centres so as to spread their stories outside the walls and make public what authorities are striving to hide.
Getting the Voice Out is a website that compiles testimonies by people detained in closed centres so as to spread their stories outside the walls and make public what authorities are striving to hide.
The site is now accessible in three different languages (English, French and Dutch), the RSS flow is operational (warning as soon as a new post has been published).
We keep on feeding the site with new testimonies in order to regularly remind that hundreds of people are daily subjected to these centres.
We've also created several new sections:
Learn more - other testimonies : A section that gathers links to other sites in Europe which have the same purpose as Getting the Voice Out, i.e give the floor to people detained in the centes of shame.
Closed centres – Opinion pieces : A section that enables us to publish texts by external persons, which we deem interesting to spread. This section will be completed as we discover texts and receive suggestions.
Closed centres - Actions in front and in the centres : The aim is to gather all information coming from the inside of detention centres in Belgium, through visitors or prisoners, but also to trace the history of the support and solidarity actions that took place in front of the centres. Suggestions are also welcome.
Detention centres : Last section but not the least since we are still working on it. It will gather all sorts of information on what are detention centres in Belgium. It will notably deal with: Who is managing the centres? Who can be found in the centres? Criminalisation and stigmatisation? The physical and psychological impacts of detention - Children - The Dublin case - What are the centres in Belgium? The daily realities in the centres - Stories of imprisonment - The detention length - The resort to isolation - Awareness-raising about rights - Access to care - Deportation threat - Detention centres in Europe – FRONTEX
Lastly, the sections on films and radios are still accessible and we are still open to suggestions to complete them.
Therefore, if you have ideas of links to web sites, films, radio sations or documents that we could add on to the site, don't hesitate to send an email to gettingthevoice(at)vluchteling.be
You may also subscribe to our newsletter, which we will try to send regularly.
(Don't hesitate either to change the link of the website on your internet pages and to spread the new address among your mailing lists for our site to be better advertised and for others to be able to discover these stories which are still more than relevant today.)
Thanks to all,
Getting the Voice Out
New testimonies :
- It is not logical to treat people like that
One night you fall asleep and they come to handcuff you and take you away, it is so shocking. You are with someone and they call you, the assistant calls you, she wants to talk to you, and that’s the way they isolate someone. Can you imagine the state we can be in, the fear to be taken away and isolated for 24 hours, and then to hear that your flight is for the day after.
You come and take a person away and you don’t bring her back normally but handcuffed and surrounded by police officers, all these police vans that follow you just like if you were going to vanish in the air… it is really scandalous.
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/it-is-not-logical-to-treat-people-like-that/
- I don't have enough courage anymore :
"I have been in the closed centre for one month and a half, and I've really lost of lot of weight, my situation is desperate. I am waiting for the answer of the tribunal, the first one was negative.
I have been living in Belgium for six years. I have introduced a regularisation request. I live in a house, I have a permanent address, I pay my rent and the electricity, I'm doing some work on the black to be able to eat. They caught me in a hairdresser's, they came in and since I did not want to give my true name to the federals..."
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/i-dont-have-enough-courage-anymore/
- When I look at him I can see death! :
"The situation is horrible at the moment. (...) Food is a disaster. As far as I am concerned, it has been around 40 days or more that I haven't been eating anything. I only eat in the morning. I share the morning snack in three parts. Most of the people do that. They only take breakfast and share it for the day. The live on breakfast, with jam and butter. You eat and then you sleep. You go directly to sleep. You drink coffee, you go to sleep. There are days you can find no one outisde."
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/when-i-look-at-him-i-can-see-death/
- The plane is for tomorrow :
"Actually, I am detained here in the 127bis closed centre, just near the airport; a centre which has nothing to do with humanity because I've seen things here that really shocked me. (...) Here, every time you try to speak, do something or change the situation for the sake of everybody, they put you under pressure and tell you that "the plane is for tomorrow".There are no criminals here. No one here has done something bad against the Belgian State, however we are living in real inhuman conditions. I want to contact an association for my voluntary return, but not like that."
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/your-plane-leaves-tomorrow/
We keep on feeding the site with new testimonies in order to regularly remind that hundreds of people are daily subjected to these centres.
We've also created several new sections:
Learn more - other testimonies : A section that gathers links to other sites in Europe which have the same purpose as Getting the Voice Out, i.e give the floor to people detained in the centes of shame.
Closed centres – Opinion pieces : A section that enables us to publish texts by external persons, which we deem interesting to spread. This section will be completed as we discover texts and receive suggestions.
Closed centres - Actions in front and in the centres : The aim is to gather all information coming from the inside of detention centres in Belgium, through visitors or prisoners, but also to trace the history of the support and solidarity actions that took place in front of the centres. Suggestions are also welcome.
Detention centres : Last section but not the least since we are still working on it. It will gather all sorts of information on what are detention centres in Belgium. It will notably deal with: Who is managing the centres? Who can be found in the centres? Criminalisation and stigmatisation? The physical and psychological impacts of detention - Children - The Dublin case - What are the centres in Belgium? The daily realities in the centres - Stories of imprisonment - The detention length - The resort to isolation - Awareness-raising about rights - Access to care - Deportation threat - Detention centres in Europe – FRONTEX
Lastly, the sections on films and radios are still accessible and we are still open to suggestions to complete them.
Therefore, if you have ideas of links to web sites, films, radio sations or documents that we could add on to the site, don't hesitate to send an email to gettingthevoice(at)vluchteling.be
You may also subscribe to our newsletter, which we will try to send regularly.
(Don't hesitate either to change the link of the website on your internet pages and to spread the new address among your mailing lists for our site to be better advertised and for others to be able to discover these stories which are still more than relevant today.)
Thanks to all,
Getting the Voice Out
New testimonies :
- It is not logical to treat people like that
One night you fall asleep and they come to handcuff you and take you away, it is so shocking. You are with someone and they call you, the assistant calls you, she wants to talk to you, and that’s the way they isolate someone. Can you imagine the state we can be in, the fear to be taken away and isolated for 24 hours, and then to hear that your flight is for the day after.
You come and take a person away and you don’t bring her back normally but handcuffed and surrounded by police officers, all these police vans that follow you just like if you were going to vanish in the air… it is really scandalous.
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/it-is-not-logical-to-treat-people-like-that/ - I don't have enough courage anymore :
"I have been in the closed centre for one month and a half, and I've really lost of lot of weight, my situation is desperate. I am waiting for the answer of the tribunal, the first one was negative.
I have been living in Belgium for six years. I have introduced a regularisation request. I live in a house, I have a permanent address, I pay my rent and the electricity, I'm doing some work on the black to be able to eat. They caught me in a hairdresser's, they came in and since I did not want to give my true name to the federals..."
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/i-dont-have-enough-courage-anymore/ - When I look at him I can see death! :
"The situation is horrible at the moment. (...) Food is a disaster. As far as I am concerned, it has been around 40 days or more that I haven't been eating anything. I only eat in the morning. I share the morning snack in three parts. Most of the people do that. They only take breakfast and share it for the day. The live on breakfast, with jam and butter. You eat and then you sleep. You go directly to sleep. You drink coffee, you go to sleep. There are days you can find no one outisde."
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/when-i-look-at-him-i-can-see-death/ - The plane is for tomorrow :
"Actually, I am detained here in the 127bis closed centre, just near the airport; a centre which has nothing to do with humanity because I've seen things here that really shocked me. (...) Here, every time you try to speak, do something or change the situation for the sake of everybody, they put you under pressure and tell you that "the plane is for tomorrow".There are no criminals here. No one here has done something bad against the Belgian State, however we are living in real inhuman conditions. I want to contact an association for my voluntary return, but not like that."
http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/your-plane-leaves-tomorrow/
Gettin the voice out