WRITTEN QUESTION E-3903/02 by Bill Newton Dunn (ELDR) to the Council. Very unpleasant experience of my constituent at Brussels Midi railway station.
Date: 2003-01-14
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Belgium, border control, cruel and degrading treatment, foreign national, police, removal

C 222 E/126

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

18.9.2003

Reply

(8 May 2003)

Council bodies started to prepare the position of the European Union for aforementioned conference. So far
a possible amendment of UN Conventions has not been discussed. The position of the European Union
will be guided by the EU Action Plan on drugs that was agreed in June 2000. Paragraph 5.2 of the Action
plan states that international cooperation be developed on the base principles adopted at the United
Nations General Assembly in June 1998. In paragraph 2 of the Political Declaration adopted at that
occasion need for adherence to the three international conventions was affirmed.

In the mid-term evaluation of the Action Plan it is said that national drugs policies should be allowed to
reflect different approaches as to tackle the drugs problem, reflecting national differences in problems,
culture, resources etc.

As regards support for parents in bringing up their children, in paragraph 3.1 of the Action Plan on drugs
2000-2004 Member States are encouraged to include in school curricula the prevention of licit and illicit
drugs in schools and to set up programs to assist parents.

(2003/C 222 E/146)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3903/02

by Bill Newton Dunn (ELDR) to the Council

(14 January 2003)

Subject: Very unpleasant experience of my constituent at Brussels Midi railway station

At the end of October the wife (who is from Belarus) of one of my British constituents decided to return
to her home for a visit by train. She took the Eurostar train from London to Brussels and did not realise (cid:1)
unwisely (cid:1) that she needed a transit visa for Belgium.

Despite having a valid passport and rail tickets for the full return journey to Minsk, my constituent’s wife
was arrested at Midi Station and two policemen marched her to a police station. She was placed in a filthy
cell with several people who had been arrested for other crimes. The room had an open toilet and human
excrement was smeared on the walls. After more than two hours she was taken out and shouted at in
French, of which she cannot speak a word. One policeman (tall, slim, with red hair)
insulted her
nationality, laughed at her passport and called her an insulting word in front of his sniggering colleague.
She was in tears and terrified. She asked to make a phone call and this was refused. She asked for an
interpreter and a lawyer and this was refused. She was ordered to sign a document in Dutch which she did
not understand, being told she could either sign or stay in the filthy cell. She was escorted back to a
Eurostar train and held in its security room until she reached London.

My constituent’s wife was wrong not to have a transit visa. But was this a correct way to treat her?

Reply

(8 May 2003)

The Council is not in a position to comment on personal reports about the way in which individuals are
treated by the authorities of the Member States acting in the exercise of powers which fall entirely within
the system of competence and under the responsibility of the Member States.