Giving Voice: Testimonies of Detainment and Deportation – Film screening

Belgium has six detention centers where illegalised migrants are held prior to their deportation. These centers are not open to the public. Journalists and activists are systematically denied access to these places in order to conceal the events taking place within these controversial spaces. When testimonies about human rights violations do reach the outside world, the absence of visual documentation prevents further action from being taken. Can film be a tool for forensic investigation of these forms of state violence and for demanding justice?

Based on three films, we approach cinema as an activist methodology that can be a corrective for stories that rarely make the news. In From Afar (2025), Gilles Van Daele and Martijn De Meuleneire combine detached imagery with audio testimonies from inside these centers. The architectural silence here contrasts sharply with the despair that unfolds inside. With À l’usage des Vivants (2018), Pauline Fonsny commemorates the death of Semira Adamu, a Nigerian woman who died in one of these centers. For Et Leur Lettre (2023), Elie Maissin and Mieriën Coppens collaborated with La Voix des Sans Papiers to provide insight into the hostile climate created for displaced persons.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers involved and representatives from La Voix des Sans Papiers and Getting the voice out, led by CESSMIR member Julija Kekstaite.