The death of a 40-year-old man from Georgia in a migrant detention centre in Merksplas, near Antwerp, caused significant unrest on Wednesday, Belgian immigration authorities reported on Thursday.
Police were forced to intervene at the facility to calm things down. The man was said to be on a hunger strike, but the cause of death is yet to be established. According to the Belgian immigration department, the detainee had gone on hunger strike because his request to transfer to France, where his wife and three children were living, had been refused.
“It often happens that a resident goes on hunger strike or threatens to do so out of dissatisfaction with their situation,” said Paulien Blondeel, spokesperson for the immigration department.
Hunger strikes have long served as a last resort for asylum seekers and other migrants in Belgium. Unfortunately, this has limited results. Of the 516 undocumented migrants who went on hunger strike in the Beguinage church in central Brussels in 2021, only 90 were allowed to legally stay in Belgium.
“These people are then followed closely on a medical level and an intervention is carried out if necessary. In this precise case, the state of the man was not yet alarming. But the court opened an investigation to determine the cause of death,” she said.
The death of the inmate caused significant outrage from other detainees. This caused heated scenes within the detainment facility on Wednesday, shocking both staff and residents.
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“Early indication points to a natural death, not foul play or an act of desperation,” the spokesperson reported. “Both for the staff and other residents, it was obviously a shock… The police intervened to calm things down. Some residents were isolated inside the facility, but no one was taken away by the police.”
The situation within the detention centre is now reported to have returned to normal.
