Introduction
This project has been a JRS-Belgium priority since its inception. This is in line with the spirit of the Jesuit Refugee Service: to serve, accompany and advocate on behalf of refugees. In particular, this project enables JRS-Belgium to accompany the most vulnerable and neglected refugees: rejected asylum seekers.

JRS-Belgium's involvement in this area does not mean that it condones the detention centre policy or that it accepts sometimes inhumane situations. On the contrary, JRS-Belgium, alongside other NGOs, continues to call for the review and reform of legislation and procedures. In particular, it is difficult to accept unduly prolonged detention, the detention of minors, not to mention the health and mental health problems caused by these centres, attempted suicides and the physical violence and psychological abuse sometimes inflicted during repatriations.

Visits and assistance to detainees
The detention project consists mainly in visiting immigration detainees in holding centres and providing them with assistance. JRS-Belgium's primary intention in carrying out these visits is to have regular contact with the detainees. Quite often, these latter are unable to understand why they are being detained and feel discouraged and depressed. JRS-Belgium endeavours to offer them an attentive and patient ear, information on the stages in asylum procedures, legal advice and psychosocial support. Our support often entails contact with public institutions such as the immigration office and the Commissariat général aux réfugiés et aux apatrides, and the lawyers, families and friends of the people concerned.

Visitors group
JRS-Belgium is a member of a visitors group including organisations like Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen and CIRÉ. Through this group, visitors from a number of organisations share information on the overall situation in the centres and the living conditions of the persons detained there. Group participants discuss the vital issues and the common positions and strategies to adopt in addressing the public authorities and raising media awareness. This network of visitors facilitates the close monitoring of conditions in the five detention centres to which visitors have access (the detention centres for foreigners in Bruges, Merksplas and Vottem, and the repatriation centres in Steenokkerzeel (127 bis) and Melsbroek (127).

Visit summaries and visitors' reports
A summary is drawn up after each visit. The information provided in these summaries enables the coordinating teams of CIRÉ and Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen (jointly responsible for coordinating these visits) to relay concerns about policy and detention practices. Thus, the coordinators are able to provide detainees with a voice, which they would not otherwise have, and to condemn failures in the running of detention centres, raise public awareness, mobilise the media, and formulate recommendations. In 2006, these summaries were analysed in depth, re-formulated and condensed in a critical report on conditions in detention centres for foreigners.

The detention of minors
Within the context of its detention project, JRS-Belgium gives particular importance to unaccompanied minors and detained families. For this reason, it works closely with the "Minors in Exile" platform. This close cooperation makes it possible to support lawyers in their work by monitoring the legal aspects of the situation of the minors concerned and to combine efforts to reiterate calls for the release of unaccompanied minors. Studies show that detention is detrimental to the psychological health of all who experience it. It goes without saying that it is twice as harmful to children: there are no schools in the detention centres and very little for them to do. As a result, their development is arrested. It is impossible for children to lead a normal child's life in a detention centre.

The detention of asylum seekers and the so-called "Dublin procedure"
The detention of asylum seekers under the Dublin procedure is another focus for JRS-Belgium's work. Asylum seekers having entered the European Union through another Member State or who are in possession of a visa issued by another Member State may be returned to that Member State under the Council Regulation known as "Dublin II". A growing number of people are being detained pending their return to the relevant country of entry. JRS-Belgium tries to monitor this question very closely.

Detention in Europe and the rest of the world
Detention is not an exclusively Belgian practice - it is also applied in other European countries. In recent years, the regional branch of JRS, i.e. "JRS-Europe", has carried out a detailed study on how this problem presents itself in many European countries. JRS-Belgium contributed to the preparation of a document entitled "Detention in Europe" by taking part in discussions on the recommendations to be formulated and by gathering precise information on the legal situation and the actual living conditions in Belgian detention centres.