State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor will make it possible to carry out medical examinations of asylum seekers and migrations through "coercive methods" as part of the bill to ban locking up children in detention centres.
The ban on detaining children in centres was included in the Federal Government's coalition agreement, and since the beginning of this legislature, there have not been any detentions of families for scheduled deportation. Now, the ban on the practice is also enshrined in law.
The text also introduces the cooperation obligation for return, meaning that those who have to leave the country must also cooperate with necessary medical examinations in the process (sometimes, a medical examination is required by the country of destination or transit, or by the carrier).
'Coercive methods'
This obligation was put in place following the Covid-19 pandemic, when some people refused to undergo the Covid-19 test required to travel as a way to prevent their deportation.
According to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), however, these mandatory medical examinations would "not be conducted in the interest of the patients or their health, but solely in the context of deportation, and may involve the use of ‘coercive methods’ such as handcuffs, armbands and other forms of physical force."
"As a medical humanitarian organisation responding to the needs of excluded people both in Belgium and internationally, including migrating people, MSF is deeply concerned about the direct risk this amendment poses to the welfare of migrant people in detention," the organisation said. "Such practices are contrary to medical ethics and the ‘do no harm’ principle."
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and State Secretary for Asylum and Migration policy Nicole de Moor. Credit: Belga/Eric Lalmand.
No one should be subjected to forced medical examination or treatment without consent, they said, stressing that people in administrative detention have the same right to respect, dignity and medical confidentiality as any other person.
"The use of physical force and coercive measures can lead to suffering and re-traumatisation in people who have already been victims of violence in the past," MSF said, emphasising the dangerous impact on people’s dignity and on the basic principles of medical ethics in general.
Methods of restraining people, including physical force, constitute a "fundamental and disproportionate infringement" of each person's right to decide about their own body and health and may constitute abuse, according to the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and medical experts.
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"Health professionals should always act in the best interests of their patients and ensure that actions taken towards them pursue strictly therapeutic goals and benefits," MSF said. "If adopted, this policy will knowingly cause harm to the health and welfare of individuals."
For medical and ethical reasons to protect the health, well-being and dignity of all people, regardless of their legal status, "this amendment is simply inadmissible in a constitutional state such as Belgium," the organisation added.
For Flemish rightwing N-VA and far-right Vlaams Belang, the bill does "not nearly go far enough" as they also want to add that the migration authorities are allowed to enter someone’s home with a view of deporting them.
