A round table with JRS Belgium and Centre Avec.

On December 20, at the Forum Saint-Michel in Brussels, JRS Belgium held, in partnership with the Centre Avec, a round table on its monitoring work carried out within closed centres.

The round table was a friendly moment with different actors working with detainees in prison or in closed centres. Everyone spoke about their work, the hope felt but also the tensions and discouragement.

Ruben Bruynooghe, who visits people in a detention centre, explained the basics of our work.

We try as best as we can to abolish the centre system because it is unfair and causes a lot of suffering. The detainees do not understand what they did wrong to find themselves locked up 24 hours a day in a centre, other than not having proper papers.

Their comfort in this harsh reality lies in our visits. We share their loneliness and their hopes. Because we visit them regularly, a relationship can be forged.

All this was explained during the round table, to which many Jesuits came. As the director of JRS Belgium, the event has given me motivation to organise other round tables about the Jesuits and the spirituality of Saint Ignatius.