Several hundred opponents of the federal migration policy gathered on Sunday afternoon outside the Vottem closed detention centre for undocumented migrants in Herstal, near Liège.
According to Liège police, around 200 people initially assembled at Saint-Lambert Square in the city centre earlier in the afternoon.
Organisers later reported that more than 400 participants marched to the detention centre, where the demonstration concluded.
The Collective for Resistance to Foreigners’ Detention Centres (CRACPE), which frequently advocates against the detention and deportation of migrants, highlighted recent legislative developments as justification for the protest.
France Arets, CRACPE’s spokesperson, expressed concern over a proposed law that would empower authorities to raid the homes of individuals hosting undocumented migrants, potentially at dawn. “The Arizona government is equipping itself with a new tool to arrest and imprison people. This is terrible!” she said.
Arets also criticised European-level decisions that, she claimed, promote the detention of entire families, including children, warning that such measures might be adopted by Belgium’s federal government.
She described the policies as an assault on fundamental freedoms and human rights, undermining asylum rights, privacy, and family life. “This disregards our Council of State and the Human Rights League,” she concluded.
