The alien body in contemporary Netherlands: incarceration and force-​feeding of asylum seekers

Pla­cing asylum seekers under the cat­egory of “detain­ees’ effect­ively puts them in the hands of the state, which has a “strong duty to care’ for per­sons under its respons­ib­il­ity. Con­sequently, force-​feeding is read as ‘giv­ing care”. Within this con­struc­tion, the depriva­tion of free­dom (being detained by the Dutch state) and viol­ence (being sub­jec­ted to non-​consented bod­ily inter­ven­tion) are trans­formed into duti­ful bene­vol­ence (being cared for by the Dutch state). It is worth not­ing that the con­sid­er­a­tion to force-​feed asylum seekers occurs at the same time that asylum seekers are dying at European Union’s bor­ders under the watch­ful eyes of its sur­veil­lance systems, or com­mit­ting sui­cide in EU deten­tion centres under con­di­tions of a lack of med­ical care. This dis­tri­bu­tion of care is care­fully managed.

Patricia Schor en Egbert Alejandro Martina in The alien body in contemporary Netherlands: incarceration and force-​feeding of asylum seekers (Critical Legal Thinking)