In the parts of the world that pretend to be civilized, strict laws are imposed to define who is locked in prison and for how long. Unfortunately, even these countries often practice arbitrary and indefinitely long detention, as long as the building where detainees are kept is not called prison. This includes orphanages, psychiatric wards, "care homes" for the disabled and - this will be my subject now - facilities for "temporary accommodation" of refugees and illegal immigrants. I recently described one such facility in Bulgaria in my blog post "Prison by any other name":
http://mayas-corner.blogspot.com/
2010/02/prison-by-any-other-name.html
I advise you, if you have time and are interested in human rights issues, to follow the link. There, you can watch the videos presenting the documentary "Bulgarian Guantanamo" and read the script. Made by Bulgarian journalist Ivan Kulekov, the documentary presents the so-called Home for temporary accommodation of foreigners in the Busmanci district of Sofia, Bulgaria. My thoughts were echoed by a former inmate who said, "They say it is not a prison, but unfortunately it IS a prison." Of course he is right - prison is every institution that imprisons people, that is, keeps them inside against their will; but calling the prison some other name allows you to lock people for years without the bother to hold a due process.
In fact, some of the prisoners at Busmanci would not qualify for any process. Because, while most inmates are adult men, some are women, and some of these women are mothers imprisoned together with their children. If you watch the first video, you will hear a headscarved woman with a bitter smile say, "No, I don't know how much I will stay here. Why we are here... We have children here. They want to help us, I see. They make a room for the children, they ask "What do you want?", they give clothes now. But I don't know. May be (to) live here (is) nice, the best for our (children?), I don't know." Unlike some of the male prisoners who openly express their anger, this mother does not dare to say much - with her children by her side, she has too much to lose.
Because all kids shown in the videos are toddlers and preschoolers, we do not know whether there are school-age children at Busmanci and, if so, whether any education is provided to them. Also, nobody says whether the little inmates are given the vaccines and well-child pediatrician visits required by law.
I first learned about the Busmanci detention center in 2006 from a newspaper article. However, I naively thought that the problem would be quickly solved after Bulgaria's joining EU in 2007. How wrong I was. It soon became clear that the European Union has no mechanism, and little will, to ensure even the most elementary human rights standards within its borders. It seems to be more concerned with talking about violation of human rights of suspected terrorists in far-away countries. The obsession with Guantanamo, to my opinion, distracts us from cleaning our own backyard and makes the illusionary impression that everything is OK in our backyard. Hence, it creates a smokescreen behind which xenophobic, careless or corrupt buraucrats in a EU member state can lock innocent mothers for years together with their babies.
For those who do not know me, I am also fairly xenophobic, with far-right views on immigration. So if treatment of foreigners makes a person like me outraged, then it really must be outrageous. Where are all the human rights watchdogs of Europe now, as prisoners at Busmanci are on hunger strike?