A few figures
From October 2008 until 28 March 2014, 633 families and 1224 accompanied minors were accommodated in the return houses of Zulte, Tubize, Sint-Gillis-Waas, Tielt and Beauvechain.
617 of those families have since left the return houses:
- 269 families were removed;
- 166 families escaped;
- 181 families were released;
- 1 family was temporarily transferred to the Caricole closed centre.
Those 617 families spent on average 24,1 days in the return houses. This average, however, gives a misleading image of the actual time that many of those families are spending in such structures – 18 families were released after reaching the maximum term of detention, i.e. 4 months-, because a great number only spends one or a few days in the return house.
Break up of the families according to the procedure:
- 259 families with “illegal status”;
- 96 families “Dublin”;
- 276 families “Border (asylum seekers at the border or families who were denied entry)”:
- 2 families “spending the night”.
The 633 families were split up between the return houses as follows:
- Zulte : 198 families
- Tubize : 208 families
- Sint-Gillis-Waas : 148 families
- Tielt : 55 families
- Beauvechain : 24 families