Belgium: a detention center in part on fire by the occupants
BRUSSELS - Asylum seekers in Angry partly burned Sunday their detention center in Belgium and some threatened to hang himself in protest against their living conditions and abuse by guards in their view,
local authorities said.
A wing of the center closed Steenokkerzeel, located near Brussels airport in the suburb northeast of the capital, was burned.
Some asylum seekers have been evacuated in the evening and taken to other facilities of the same type. "A wing which was set on fire is uninhabitable. Families with children can stay. We are trying to evacuate from other people that are mounted on the roof. It is not known yet how many people will be relocated" said in the evening Mayor Steenokkerzeel Karel Servranckx.
Several occupants were in fact mounted on the roof and tried climbing fences. Others have threatened to hang with their bedding from the window of their cell. The neighborhood has long been sealed off by police, came in number.
Forty protesters also went in a procession Sunday through the center entrance to the call for a support group for asylum seekers, "Voices Without Frontiers.
Asylum seekers complain for several days their conditions of detention and accusing the service orders to engage in abuse, physical and mental, against them.
Some residents have began a hunger strike Wednesday in response to mistreatment allegedly suffered in particular an Egyptian 18.
The young man was taken Tuesday night in an isolation room where he was allegedly beaten by four guards, according to protesters. The guards reportedly also made threats against him to accept his expulsion in a calm and he never returns to Belgium, according to protesters.
The Armenians have also been mistreated after he tried to escape.
Before the center, the demonstrators waved a banner Sunday proclaiming "Human rights at risk."
"Politicians show quick to condemn the violence of the Mubarak regime, but turn a blind eye to the violence used by guards in Belgium in respect of a young Egyptian," said a member of the support committee, Axel Wauters.
Belgium has faced for several months with an influx of asylum seekers.
(© AFP / February 20, 2011 10:26 p.m.)
Source: http://www.romandie.com/infos/news2/110220212600.4v2r0m49.asp
See also:
Belgium: Armenians are trying desperately to s 'escape center closed
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