Double punishment: Immigration detention after prison in Luxembourg

After serving a prison sentence over the past year, Thomas was looking forward to being released and hopefully starting over. But, on the day of his release, he was met by the authorities. He would spend the coming months in the detention centre, locked up again, just at a new location.

While this example is fictitious, it puts a name and story to the fate of several third-country nationals in Luxembourg. Third-country nationals refers to people who are neither from Luxembourg, nor from another European Union member state, nor from Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein or Switzerland. Their experiences paint a picture of the harm caused by Luxembourgish detention law. Keyword: double and even triple punishment.

"What happens is the following: A person might have gotten a two-year sentence. They wait for two years in prison and believe they will soon be free, but that's not the case at all. They are sent directly from prison to the detention centre, " as reported by the Association de Soutien aux Travailleurs Immigrés (ASTI). According to Sérgio Ferreira from the human rights organisation, "detention centre is a name to downplay what’s happening. It's a prison for foreigners".

Inside the detention centre

Before jumping into the practicalities, let us take a closer look at the structure in discussion: In 2012, the government-run detention centre at Findel opened its doors – or rather locked people behind some. While people have individual bedrooms and large living rooms shared between 14 to 16 people, detainees are consistently under surveillance. The living rooms have a large window where security staff sit behind, watching the detainees. "It's like in a crime movie, " jurist Anke Vandereet from human rights organisation Passerell notes, who has been onsite a few times. Most communal rooms are under 24/7 video surveillance, including some bedrooms.