With regard to the health situation (26,178 cases and 243 deaths), NGOs, associations and lawyers plead for the reopening of prisons.
Le Monde with AFP
It has been eighteen months ago David did not see his three cadet brothers, held in Lomé Civil Prison, the Togo that prohibited at the beginning of the CVIV-19 pandemic visits to penitentiary centers. “I am landed and shocked because I do not know under what conditions are my brothers”, worries this sexagenarian, commercial agent in a private company.
Since April 13, 2020, the Togolese authorities have banned visits to prisons to “protect” the detainees “against the risk of contamination from outside”. “All visits to the inmates in the Civil prisons of the Togo and the Lomé Minor Brigade are suspended until further notice,” said the Minister of Justice, Pius Agbeetomey, stating that exceptional derogations could be granted after examination. .
For many Togolese, the tour prohibition is disproportionate with regard to the health situation. Togo has identified 26,178 cases of COVID-19, including 243 deaths, according to the latest official figures. At the beginning of the pandemic, a large number of countries had made the decision to prohibit visits to protect the detainees, but most have since lifted this prohibition.
virtually vital tours
“The inmates are a particular category of people, whose isolation deserves solidarity and psychological support of parents”, Aimé Audi, director of Amnesty International in Togo. “It’s really time to reopen prisons to relieve detainees and their parents,” says Kao Atcholi, president of the victims’ association in Togo (Asvitto).
In Togo, as in many African countries, visits are almost vital for detainees, as they allow relatives to bring food, clothes and medicines, the penitentiary system being generally underfunded. Some loved ones get there every day to bring meals.
“I do not know if my loved ones are sick. I saw them in early April 2020. The visits allowed me to cheer them up by providing them regularly from food and medicine”, lament Aboubacar Amidou, including six Parents are locked up at Lomé’s civil prison, arrested in the wake of the major events of the opposition in October 2017.
The Togo has been headed since 2005 by Faure Gnassingbé, arrived in power after the death of his father, General Gnassingbé Eyadema, who had directed Togo himself for thirty-eight years. It has been re-elected during votings that have all been challenged by the opposition.
Private NGOs of Access to Detainees
In addition to families, NGOs and associations provide assistance to detainees who are now prohibited. “The parents of some detainees entrust us with the parcels that we give to the leaders of the prison administration. But we do not have access to the detainees,” says Ali Essoham, in charge of the program “Observers of prisons” of the global solidarity NGO For poor people and detainees.
For the Director of Prison Administration, Akibou Idrissou, “It would be too early to reopen the prisons facing the outbreak of the Pandemic of Covid-19 in the country” In recent months: “Prison is a closed environment And it was important for the government to anticipate to protect the residents and avoid a rapid spread of the virus in our prisons. Most detainees are vaccinated, as well as staff. Even new prisoners have been vaccinated in recent days . Moreover, to relieve the detainees, the government offers them another meal. “
Only lawyers now have access to the detainees, but they must first obtain an authorization. “The morale of the prisoners was already very low. With this decision, they are more isolated”, regrets M e Claude Kokou Amegan, who was able to visit several of his clients. According to him, the prohibition of visits has been taken “at a period of the pandemic where all the states were looking for”, but today we could “impose with rigor barriers and allow parents and lawyers to see the detainees” , as far as “a good part of the prison population is now vaccinated”.