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Here you can read detainees stories

Otopeni detention center (Romania, West part of the country)

Detainees from Otopeni migrants camp (Romania) keep calling Migreurop office to make their voices heard. Mr A., married to a Romanian women for nearly two years, doesn’t understand the reasons for his detention. He tells us about life conditions in the centre, his confusion and revolt. Story collected on the phone on the 13th and 14th of June 2012

18/06/2012

"We are not animals!"

13.06.2012 - Morning

"Today, they brought our meal in a van, without any refrigeration system, by more than 40° degrees outside. The food? It is coloured water with food particles.
With other detainees, we saw agents of the centre putting back in pots food dropped on the ground. We warned all the other detainees. If they do not have enough money to well-fed us, why do they keep us locked here? No one is going to eat. We are going to have troubles.
We are 12 per room.
It is detainees who have to clean the centre.
We are not animals!
I am a graduate in economics and managements and I am married with a Romanian women. I have been before the Court with a lawyer. The judge refused my lawyer and I had to defend myself. It has been a week now and I have still not received the Court decision. I don’t know why I am here."

The afternoon, Mr A. has being put in an isolation room.

14.06.2012

"I am still in the isolation room. They have punished me because no detainee eats the dropped food.
Guardians told me « In your country, you do not have anything to eat. If you refuse to eat, we will use the force against you ».
I have knocked at the door and asked to go out to speak to the head of the centre. I want explanations!
I understand Romanian. I have heard guardians saying « Let it alone, do not speak with him ».
They allowed me to speak to translate for them, no to speak about bad-treatments.
From now, I cannot eat with other detainees. They picked me up after everybody eats and I eat alone, monitored by two guardians.
I am punished only because I told what I have seen. But I think I have the right to speak because we are not animals to eat food dropped on the floor and transported without refrigeration system by more than 40 degrees.
Is that normal? No, I do not think so. What happen here is catastrophic. It is prison-like."

M. A., detainee from Otopeni detention center

Otopeni detention center (Romania, West part of the country)

Detainee's story collected on the phone on the 11/06/2012

11/06/2012

Migreurop has received a new distress call from detainees of a Romanian detention camp. Few months ago, the network has already been warned about the dramatic situation of migrants detained in the Arad closed camp, in the western part of the country. Few days ago, detainees of the second detention camp of the country, Otopeni, near Bucharest, wished to make their cry for help heard.

"We cannot go outside!"

« At the moment, we are about 70 in Otopeni. There are a lot of different nationalities. Life conditions are very tough in the camp. You know Arad? Otopeni is the same.
We do not eat well, we cannot go outside, policemen do not respect us, we cannot see a doctor.
Some of us are here, confined this way for more than 4 months. They cannot stand it anymore. They want to begin a hunger strike.
Romanian even expelled a Palestinian couple whose wife was pregnant to Palestine. There is also this Tunisian, married to a Romanian for nearly two years, he is imprisoned in the camp but he don’t even know why.
We need help.”

Detainees from Otopeni detention center (Romania)

Coquelles detention camp (France, close to Calais)

On monday 16th of April 2012, a group of expelled began hunger strike.18 of them signed the following call:

16/04/2012

"We didn't do anything wrong. We didn't commit any crime or terroristact. We have been here like 15-20 days in deporting centre. We don’t wantto stay in this country and claim asylum in this country. We just want to leave this country and this deportation centre. We have fingerprints in other European countries. Why have we been here for so long?? We are not guilty. They treat us like animals.
Our recommendations are that we wish to be free from this deportation centre and this country. We just want to go to which ever country we have fingerprints in, as soon as possible.
On 16th April 2012 like 16 people in green zone started a protest and stopped eating. We will not stop this protest. We will only stop once our demands have been processed.
We just want a better life, and freedom. Help us, who ever reads this letter, please.
Thank you."

Arad detention camp (Romania)

It’s been several weeks that Migreurop has been in contact with Arad detention centre detainees in Romania. They had already reported about their situation on 8 March 2012: Arad Camp (Romania): “we are in hell”. Events were organised nationally especially by organisations, activists and journalists following the dissemination of this first account. This resulted in different media trying to access Arad detention centre last week to report on the situation. The media were denied access. Yesterday, detainees have contacted Migreurop to tell about the situation after this event and especially about what happened on Saturday, 24 March 2012

27/03/2012

“Handcuffed and beaten for a lighter”

« Last week, on Wednesday 21 March, some journalists came and tried to enter the detention centre to visit us but the director refused. We called them from the windows and asked them to come in but they were not allowed to.
This week-end, we felt we were being punished because of that. We were given even less permission to leave our cells and go to the corridor; on Saturday, we were allowed out for 30 or 45 minutes. We were not allowed to buy cigarettes either. The water was cut on Saturday. One of the detainees who has been held in the centre for a long time told us we were heading for trouble, because some gendarmerie officers with tear gas had just arrived. Whenever they come to the centre, it is because they intend to beat us and gas us. They are not here all the time; they only come when there is tension in the centre. They came on Saturday.
At some point, on the same day, one of the detainees who was in his cell asked for a lighter to smoke a cigarette. He was not given one, and he got angry. It is worth mentioning that this gentleman is not mentally stable, he should not be here; he is very fragile psychologically. Two officers then opened the door, one of them pushed the co-detainee (who was sharing the cell with this man) on the ground. Meanwhile, the man who had asked for a lighter had his hands cuffed behind his back. Then they beat him badly. It was a massacre. We heard him shout for about a minute. Then the officers left him in his cell. They closed the door, and left. This man could not walk for the whole week-end. His head was swollen, his nose had bled and his entire body was covered with bruises. He did not get access to any medical care.
People are feeling bad in this camp, it drives them crazy. Those who “cracked up” the most were transferred to another detention centre, in Otopeni.
We need help.”

Arad detainees

Arad detention camp (Romania)

Migreurop received a distress call from the detention center of Arad in Romania. Detainees have reported serious human rights violations: frequent police violence (beatings, gassing), solitary confinement arbitrary partitioning into cell near 22h a day, no access to a doctor or appropriate care, etc.. Read their story below (in French and Romanian)

14/03/2012

"We are in hell"

« We need help, we are more than fifty detainees in the Arad detention centre, Romania. We are asylum seekers and they put us in detention. Some have been here for a month, others for 7, 8, 9 months. We are a group of men and one pregnant woman.
We are badly treated, worse than animals. The detention guards are beating us up, badly. This happens often. For example, Tuesday this week, on 6 March 2012, some policemen wanted to spray tear gas on one detainee, we don’t even know why. They brought him to the isolation cell, downstairs, to beat him up. We heard him shout from our cells.
We are detained 24h/7. We can only leave our cells and walk in the corridor one to two hours a day. We are denied access to outside walks, to the TV, we cannot be sent money from our families using Western Union. We are systematically given the same food over and over again. We have no access to a doctor. If one of us falls sick, we are helpless. Right now, many of us suffer from skin problems, it’s hitchy, it’s painful, but nobody is taking care of us.
Once we wanted to go on hunger strike to tell we could not stand this anymore! We asked for our rights. That day, they asked gendarmerie officers, wearing balaclavas, to come. We were locked up in our cells, they sprayed pepper gas on us through the window of our door’s cell. Then they opened the door, and we have all been beaten. They even broke one detainee’s arm and nose.
All of this is making us terribly nervous, we can’t stand it anymore. You must experience it to be able to understand. Some are so much overwrought that they attempt suicide. This happened to one of the detainees who was feeling very down and wanted to slash his wrists. The policemen brought him a knife telling him “with that you’ll make it”.
We have nothing to do it, no activity, this is also aggressive to the nerves system.
Detention in Romania can last 18 months. 18 months like that is unbearable! What we are going through cannot be imagined. We could not make someone believe we are in Europe. 18 months in a cage! The heating has been recently cut off, with sleep with our coats on. The shower does not function any more, we are nearly sleeping on the bed base as mattress are in such a bad state. We are in hell”

Detainees from Arad detention centre (Romania)