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Netherlands to Belgium: Criminals don’t deserve your “inhuman” prisons

The Netherlands has struck a low blow in Low Country rivalry, saying it won’t send criminal suspects to Belgium. In the latest spat between the niggling neighbours, the Dutch government has refused to hand over eight suspected South American drug smugglers to Belgium, citing concerns from an international report that described them as “inhuman” and “degrading.”

Prisoner transfers are usually a formality, but this one cannot go ahead, “without further investigation into the detention conditions in Belgian prisons,” an Amsterdam court ruled, suspending the move while Dutch prosecutors seek further information. Amsterdam’s specialised International Legal Aid Court, which decides on transfers to other countries, pointed to a recent two-month strike by Belgian prison staff, during which inmates were “almost permanently” confined to their cells. “The court must refuse a transfer if there is talk in the requesting country of a fundamental violation of human rights,” it found.

The Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens said he had noted the Dutch decision, but insisted that the court was merely seeking “more information”.

Outdated and overcrowded

Belgian prisons have been struggling for years with huge overpopulation, outdated infrastructure and lack of staff. In its damning report published in July, the anti-torture committee of the 47-member, Strasbourg-based Council of Europe lambasted the “ongoing failure of the Belgian authorities to put in place a minimum level of service to guarantee the rights of inmates during periods of industrial action by prison staff.” It said failure to do so, “could result in a large number of inmates being subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment,” in a situation which is already “intolerable” and could end up “endangering the health and life of these persons”.

The committee said it not seen such conditions in any of the visits carried out in its 47 members during the last 27 years. Lantin Prison, near Liège, was cited as an example, where, according to the report, during last year’s strike, inmates were kept in their cells, often unable to shower for weeks.

The International Observatory for Prisons (OIP), a prison oversight organization estimates as many as 700 prisoners endure particularly grave conditions, such as cells without enough beds, running water or toilets, and no access to proper medical care.

By contrast, the Netherlands is short of people to lock up. About a third of Dutch prison cells sit empty, according to the Ministry of Justice: 19 prisons closed in 2014 alone, and five more since then. Belgium even rented some 650 unused cells in Tilburg’s Willem II Prison.

Belgium and the Netherlands have endured a long history of competition dating back to the Middle Ages when the Flemish city of Antwerp vied with Amsterdam as a trading port. Since Belgium declared its independence from the Netherlands in 1830, the two sides have maintained a respectful rivalry, and last year they conducted a friendly land swap around the mouth of the Meuse river. Now most of their sparring is about which Dutch accent – from Flanders or the Netherlands – sounds better.

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