NETHERLANDS: Prison officers do not have to guard asylum seekers
01 January 2002
Since March 2001, asylum seekers, including families, have been held in Amsterdam's Bijlmerbajes prison. One of the prison's five towers is now used to detain asylum seekers, who in the past were held in the so-called border prison Grenshospitium, not far from the Bijlmer prison. In daytime, the refugees are guarded by special warders (vreemdelingenbewaarders, foreigner guards), but at night, the regular guards (PIW, penitentiair inrichtingswerker) have to assist, because of a lack of personnel. Four regular guards complained and tested their case in court, because they, and 24 of their colleagues, refused to guard immigrants because of conscientious objections. One of them told the Volkskrant newspaper: "I still have to do night shifts in the Grenshospitium and I think it's awful. When I look out from the ward to the prison yard where the families walk around, I feel pain in my heart."
Positive ruling
In July 2001, a civil court judge ruled that the four guards were not trained to work in the Grenshospitium and therefore do not have to do the job. The other 20 guards, who have not tested their case in court, still have to guard asylum seekers because, due to the civil nature of the claim, the ruling does not apply to them. The ruling was limited to six weeks, giving the Ministry of Justice until September or October 2001 to review the complaints. The representative of civil service trade union Abvakabo-FNV told the Volkskrant that it was politically immoral to imprison refugees in the same building as regular prisoners: "Refugees will be stigmatised, but the judge will never rule against this, because the imprisonment of refugees together with normal criminals is a political decision."
In response the Ministry of Justice decided that there was no reason to bring its policy in line with the court's ruling. The trade union therefore went to court again on 10 November 2001, and won its case. The guards claimed in Het Parool: "We are not trained to support these restrictive immigration laws, people who are not criminals should not be imprisoned."
Like "apples and pears"
Public prosecutor A van Vliet stated during the trial that the guards simply did not want to fulfil their night shifts, that there was no difference between criminals and refugees and that the guards criticised the immigration law without explaining how refugees should otherwise be dealt with. Presiding judge W de Klein ruled on 24 November 2001, that the shortage of personnel was the fault of the Ministry itself. He pointed out that occurrences of sickness leave amongst prison guards was more than 20% and said that the Ministry was not taking responsibility. de Klein also declared that the public prosecutor's assertion, that the guarding of criminals was the same as guarding asylum seekers, was ridiculous, and that this was like "comparing apples to pears".
De Volkskrant 26.7.01; Trouw 10.11.01, het Parool 24.11.01