21 mai 2018

CDB_77 : Belgian authorities admit two-year-old girl was shot after police chase

Une course-poursuite entre une camionnette de migrants et la police belge a provoqué, jeudi 16 mai, la mort d’une fillette kurde hébergée dans un camp à Grande-Synthe. L’enfant a été tuée par balle. Après avoir démenti une première fois l’information jeudi, le parquet de Mons a admis vendredi que l’enfant avait été tuée par une balle. Dans le camp de Grande-Synthe où sont réunis plus de 400 exilés, la douleur est vive et les langues se délient quant aux conditions de passage.

CDB_77

❝Prosecutors confirm child found dead after police opened fire on van
carrying refugees was killed by a gunshot wound.

The authorities in Belgium have admitted that a two-year-old girl who died
after police opened fire on a van carrying migrants near #Mons on Thursday
was shot in the face.

Manda - Two-year-old died after Belgian police opened fire


Prosecutors had initially denied the account given to the Guardian by
relatives of the girl, called #Mawda, suggesting instead that she had been
taken ill or died as a result of erratic driving.

The child was killed after a police patrol followed and intercepted a van
containing 26 adults and four children, including Mawda, on a highway near
the city of Mons in the early hours of Thursday morning.

She was travelling with her Kurdish-Iraqi parents and three-year-old
brother. A source told the Guardian that police opened fire in an effort to
stop the vehicle, which was being driven by alleged people smugglers to a
lorry park on the coast. From there, the refugees were to be smuggled
onboard lorries destined for the UK. 

However, a source had told the Guardian that police opened fire on the van
in an effort to force it to stop. A bullet is alleged to have penetrated
the vehicle and hit the girl in the cheek.

Following the gunfire, it is understood that officers surrounded the
vehicle in a 45-minute standoff as they assessed the situation. Upon
opening the doors of the van, the child’s mother screamed for help. An
ambulance was called and took the child to a Mons hospital, where she was
pronounced dead. It is believed, however, that Mawda died at the scene.

Frédéric Bariseau, a spokesman for the Tournai prosecutor’s office,
confirmed on Friday afternoon that Mawda died as a result of a gunshot
injury, but said he could not confirm the provenance of the bullet.

“The autopsy determined that the cause of death was a bullet that entered
the cheek,” said Bariseau.

“I want to be careful about saying that the bullet could be of police
origin. We have to assess the evidence.

“Police have opened an internal investigation to determine the
circumstances of the girl’s death.

In a statement released on Thursday, Bariseau had denied reports that the
girl had been shot. “The little girl did not die as a result of police
gunfire,” he said, suggesting several possible causes including illness,
an accident inside the van caused by the driver’s behaviour, or a blow to
the head.

Jan Jambon, Belgium’s interior minister, wrote on Twitter: “[a] tragic
event with dramatic consequences. The investigation is ongoing.”

A source close to the family told the Guardian: “The family are worried
that their daughter’s death will be covered up with no one being held to
account. They have been told by the authorities that Mawda will be buried
on Tuesday.

“Her family have been placed in accommodation in Belgium. However, they
have been told that they have to decide whether they are seeking asylum in
Belgium. They have until tomorrow to make up their minds, failing which
they have to leave and might possibly be deported back to Germany, but this
is unclear.

“Either way, authorities have stated that once they have ‘legally
settled in a country’ they can claim Mawda’s body and have it
transferred.”

The source alleged that the family had previously been smuggled to the UK
but was deported to Germany last year by UK authorities since Mawda was
born there, and is therefore a German national.

Zakia Khattabi, co-leader of the Belgian Green party, Mawda’s death was
the result of an “increasingly repressive” migration policy. “I want
to extend our sympathy to the victim and the victim’s family,” she
said. “But after emotion comes anger. We demand that the spotlight is put
on this case and that political responsibilities are taken.”

Belgium’s federal government has been criticised for its increasingly
tough stance on migrants. Theo Francken, the country’s immigration
minister, said last year that Europe must turn back boats carrying would-be
migrants across the Mediterranean.

“Taking a ticket on a smuggler boat does not give you free entrance into
the European continent,” said Francken, a member of the Flemish
separatist N-VA, the largest party in the governing coalition.

Earlier this year, Francken drew criticism for deporting Sudanese migrants,
several of whom later said they were tortured after being returned home.❞

❝The source alleged that the family had previously been smuggled to the
UK but was deported to Germany last year by UK authorities since Mawda was
born there, and is therefore a German national.❞

The Guardian

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