Jesuit Refugee Service criticizes conditions of detention centers

Published: 2004-01-30

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- A Catholic aid agency urged controls by European governments on the growing use of detention centers for refugees and asylum seekers. "Asylum seekers are being detained either in closed centers where there is no free movement, or else in open centers, which have such restrictive atmospheres that they are almost like prisons," said the Rome-based Jesuit Refugee Service. "This is no way to run an asylum system," said a report published in the JRS January bulletin, Dispatches. "Not only is it fundamentally unjust, but it is eroding the system set up to protect the vulnerable, (a system) which has served us well for 50 years." The report said governments were using detention to discourage economic migrants, as well as to "appear tough to their electorates." It said agency personnel had visited a detention center where 40-50 asylum seekers were "held in a very small space" and allowed out to an enclosed yard for only a "very limited period" each day. "This is an unjust way to deal with people who claim asylum," the report said.

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