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Amnesty International Report 2000 - Belgium

Head of state: King Albert II
Head of government: Guy Verhhofstadt (replaced Jean-Luc Dehaene in July)
Capital: Brussels
Population: 10.2 million
Official languages: Dutch, French, German
Death penalty: abolitionist for all crimes
1999 treaty ratifications/signatures: UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

There were allegations that criminal suspects were ill-treated by law enforcement officers and that asylum-seekers were ill-treated during forcible deportations and in detention centres for aliens. A judicial investigation continued into the death in 1998 of an asylum-seeker following the use of a dangerous method of restraint during a forcible deportation. There was concern that the rounding-up, detention and collective repatriation in October of more than 70 Romani asylum-seekers from Slovakia, before appeals procedures had been exhausted in all the cases, indicated a discriminatory targeting of asylum-seekers on the basis of their ethnic identity, rather than an impartial application of the asylum procedure.

Background

In October, the new coalition government issued an outline of its policies on asylum and immigration, to be implemented over the period of a year. Among the measures announced were plans to accelerate and simplify refugee determination procedures; to draw up a "temporary protection" statute for people fleeing wars; to improve the situation of child asylum-seekers; to allow specific categories of immigrants residing illegally in the country to obtain permanent residency; to encourage voluntary deportation of rejected asylum-seekers by providing psychological and social support for those facing deportation; to maintain strict official limitations on the use of force by gendarmes performing escort duties during deportation operations; to allow a doctor and an observer from the human rights field to accompany deportees travelling under gendarme escort on special flights organized by the public authorities; and to establish an independent body mandated, among other things, to receive and examine complaints concerning the treatment of asylum-seekers.

Alleged ill-treatment and racism by law enforcement officers

In May the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism, a body reporting to the prime minister and parliament, indicated that a significant percentage of formal complaints of racism made during the six years of the Centre's existence related to ill-treatment by law enforcement officers. In October the Permanent Monitoring Committee of Police Services, a body examining the functioning of all law enforcement agencies, submitted its annual report to parliament and the government. It recorded dozens of complaints of unjustified use of violence by law enforcement officers.

In July the government stated that a working group had begun meeting in January to study certain recommendations of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and possible reforms. In 1998 the Committee had expressed serious concern that no progress had been made in introducing certain fundamental safeguards against ill-treatment in police custody which it had recommended to the government in previous years, such as the right of immediate access to a lawyer.

Alleged ill-treatment during forcible deportation

There were fresh allegations that foreign nationals being forcibly deported were physically assaulted and subjected to dangerous restraint techniques by gendarmes.

The use of a method of restraint known as the "cushion technique" - allowing gendarmes to press a cushion against the mouth, but not the nose, of a recalcitrant deportee to prevent biting and shouting - was suspended following the death of Semira Adamu, a Nigerian asylum-seeker, after a forcible deportation operation in September 1998 (see below). The government then asked an independent commission led by Professor Vermeersch, a moral philosopher, to evaluate the instructions and techniques relating to forcible deportations. The commission published its findings in January. It recommended, among other things, that certain restraint methods be definitively banned during forcible deportations, including "in particular, anything obstructing normal respiration (for example, adhesive tape, cushion on the mouth), and all forced administration of pharmacological products (except by doctors in urgent situations which would naturally mean the termination of the attempted deportation)". AI urged the government to adopt the commission's recommendation in its entirety. Basing its position on the expert opinions of internationally recognized forensic pathologists, AI underlined its own opposition to the use of materials and methods which could block the airways. New internal guidelines issued in July to gendarmes escorting deportees apparently largely reflected the commission's recommendations.

There were persistent claims in the course of 1999 that gendarmes used heavily padded gloves to cover the mouths of deportees, thus blocking the airway. There were also allegations that, in preparation for deportation, individuals were placed face down on the floor in restraints, with their hands and ankles bound together from behind - sometimes for prolonged periods - and then carried by the restraints. Such allegations described a restraint method reminiscent of "hog-tying", a highly dangerous procedure which can restrict breathing and lead to death from positional asphyxia, especially when applied to an individual who is agitated. In correspondence with the authorities, AI sought comments on the allegations concerning the use of padded gloves and "hog-tying" and information as to any steps taken to ascertain their veracity.

• A judicial investigation was opened into allegations made by Matthew Selu, a Sierra Leonean national who was deported from Brussels-National airport to Dakar, Senegal, in November. He claimed that gendarmes used gloves to "choke" him; hit him, while handcuffed, on the chest, ribs and head; and placed him on "a kind of stretcher" on board the aircraft, with restraints placed around his shoulders, forearms, knees and ankles. He alleged that he briefly lost consciousness as a result of the blows inflicted.

A medical certificate issued by a doctor who examined him within a day of his arrival in Dakar recorded, among other things, a head wound some six centimetres long, a sprain to his left thumb, multiple contusions to his chest, neck and right shoulder, and bruising to his wrists and ankles. Matthew Selu said he was unable to recall precisely how he had incurred the head wound.

The Minister of the Interior stated that, according to gendarmerie reports, Matthew Selu had violently and vociferously resisted, tried to bite and head-butt the escorting gendarmes and had accidentally incurred a minor head wound when alighting from a gendarmerie vehicle transporting him to his flight. He indicated that Matthew Selu received first aid on board the aircraft, that he offered no further physical resistance once airborne, and that his handcuffs were removed for the rest of the flight, which was without incident.

Semira Adamu

A judicial investigation into the death in September 1998 of Nigerian national Semira Adamu following the use of the "cushion technique" had not concluded by the end of 1999. An initial autopsy had apparently concluded that she died of asphyxia. Three gendarmes remained under investigation in connection with possible manslaughter charges. In September the Belgian Human Rights League, which had lodged a criminal complaint against persons unknown and constituted itself as a civil party to the judicial proceedings opened after Semira Adamu's death, requested that two former Ministers of the Interior also be investigated in connection with possible manslaughter charges. The League held them responsible for the introduction and implementation of the "cushion technique" as an authorized method of restraint during forcible deportations and argued that they thereby also bore responsibility for Semira Adamu's death.

Alleged ill-treatment in detention centres for aliens

There were a number of allegations that detainees held in various detention centres were subjected to excessive use of force and ill-treatment. Several such allegations emanated from Steenokkerzeel detention centre 127-bis, located near Brussels-National airport.

• An investigation was under way into a criminal complaint lodged in November 1998 by Blandine Kaniki, an asylum-seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She alleged that in October 1998, while accompanied by her five-year-old son, she and other inmates of detention centre 127-bis were subjected to an indiscriminate physical assault by helmeted gendarmes armed with batons and shields. Other inmates made written statements claiming to have been victims of, or witnesses to, the ill-treatment alleged. Blandine Kaniki was three months pregnant at the time and claimed that a miscarriage she suffered a few weeks later was the result of a blow to the stomach and subsequent inadequate medical assistance. The gendarmes had been called in to end an inmates' protest against an attempt to forcibly deport a Nigerian national earlier in the day; inmates claimed the man had been subjected to excessive force by members of the centre's personnel.
• A judicial investigation was opened into a criminal complaint lodged by an Armenian national, Hovhannes Karapetyan, who alleged that, following his return to centre 127-bis after an attempt to deport him in June and pending transfer to another wing of the building, warders subjected him to an unprovoked assault, throwing him to the ground and beating him until he lost consciousness. He was then transferred to an isolation cell where he said he was held overnight without medical assistance. A doctor who examined him the following day ordered his hospitalization, and medical reports accompanying his complaint apparently recorded facial injuries and a fractured elbow. The Foreigners Office attached to the Ministry of the Interior, stated that warders intervened because Hovhannes Karapetyan had physically resisted his transfer to another section of the centre, had refused to see a doctor who went to visit him in the isolation cell during the night, and threw himself against one of the cell walls.

AI country report

• Belgium: Correspondence with the government concerning the alleged ill-treatment of detained asylum-seekers (AI Index: EUR 14/001/99)