fredag 6 december 2013

Torture in Rotterdam refugee prison


Once again prove of the use of torture in detention centre Rotterdam,
Netherlands

Yesterday, one of the members of the Deportation Resistance Group visited
mr. Haydari, father of an Afghan family. He is threatened with deportation
to Kabul Saturday the 26th of October. This would rip the family apart:
three children with the ages of five years old, two years old and a
newborn of two months old.

Mr. Haydari recently had brain surgery and never really recovered
completely. He has problems with speaking, severe concentration problems
and needs special care. In detention he is kept at a department for
refugees with medical problems.

Part of his treatment is medication, enabling him to sleep. But yesterday
it turned out that the guards wake him up EVERY HOUR from 9pm, the moment
he gets his sleeping medication. The guards unlock the door, turn the
light on, wake him up and then close the door with a lot of noise. This
continues until the morning and is repeated every night.

Mr Haydari doesn't understand why the guards wake him up, specially
because the doctors in detention prescribed the sleeping medication. The
medical staff did not say anything about these 'observations'.

Is this kind of 'observation' torture? Yes, it is. It is called sleep
deprivation and used as a technique (for example in Guantanamo Bay) to
break people psychologically. It is not the first time that the
Deportation Resistance Group hears testimonies of these practices. Sleep
deprivation can cause mental breakdown, hallucinations and Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder. As there is no reason to 'interrogate' mr Haydari in
order to get some 'confession', we really do not understand why the
detention centre applies this inhumane treatment to mr Haydari.