Close your eyes and imagine that one day the police take you to a building, and lock you there, away from your friends and family. Imagine that in that place you have to share a 12 m2 cell with two other people; in that cell there is only a bed for each of you, no chairs and table… nothing but the beds. Imagine that the police take away from you all your belongings, they tell you when and what to eat, when you can call your family or your lawyer, when it is time to sleep… but nobody tells you anything about your near future.
Seems you are in prison, right? Well, you are wrong. You are in a Detention Center for foreigners. Governments insist again and again, denying the prison regime of these centers, but to me it is quite obvious: you are locked, guarded by the police 24/7, you live in a cell… you are in prison.
But what is your crime? Being an “illegal” immigrant. You may be working (without a contract, of course), you may have a good social net that supports you, you may have a family, you may be the best neighbor and the nicest person in the city, but to the eyes of the government, you are a criminal because you don’t have “the papers”. Well, it depends on the colour of your skin and in the country you are living. I am Spanish, I arrived to Finland in 2013, I had a residence permit for 3 months (as a tourist), but after that, I was “illegal” for a few months, I was working without a contract, I had friends… But I’m white, and I was in Finland. Now my situation is legal, but I still know many people waiting for the “papers”. Of course German, Finnish or Swedish people don’t have to worry about going to Spain, they will not be arrested even if they stay longer that the 3 months’ residence permit. But be careful if you come from Africa, or South America… you are an easy target.
Detention Centers for foreigners across the continent, including in France, Greece, Spain and Italy have all been denounced for abusing and violating human rights over the years.
In Italy, the Bossi-Fini law threatens with fines and deportation the immigrants entering the country without a work contract. This 2002 law makes illegal migration punishable by fine or jail. In Spain over 50% of the inmates are arrested because of their illegal entry to the country. The Spanish law says that they can be arrested for a maximum of 60 days, until the Court decides if they have to be deported or not (sadly the arrests almost always last more than 60 days). The inmates in Spain don’t receive the information they need to apply for asylum, so most of the times they are deported even if they come from a country in war. And in Hungary, a new series of emergency laws adopted in September 2015 will allow the police to operate detention centres, in addition to making illegal border crossings and aiding migrants punishable by prison time. The government also sent armed troops to its border.
What is wrong with European politicians? We, Europeans, sack their countries, steal their natural resources, look away when they are struggling, and if they try to come here looking for a better life, we make a huge maze of bureaucracy to asylum seekers and/or put them under arrest… How can policymakers and politicians sleep at night?
Honestly, it sucks.
Elena May
