Over 100 persons gathered late on Tuesday in front of the Vottem Detention Centre in Herstal, Liège Province, to protest against the detention and deportation of undocumented migrants in Belgium.
The rally took place at around 4.30 p.m.
For the past 15 years or so, people have been coming out to show their support for undocumented immigrants on Christmas Eve.
"The idea is that this day of conviviality for many people can also be a day of conviviality for people arbitrarily and unjustly detained," France Arets, spokesperson for the Collective for Resistance to Centres for Foreigners (CRACPE) explained.
"This is an opportunity for us to surround the centre with candles to show what we consider to be the most shameful face of Belgian migration policy, i.e. imprisonment and deportation," she said.
She later said that a delegation made up of associations and members of parliament had entered the centre to ask its director a series of questions.
"For example, one important issue for us is that of disciplinary isolation," the CRACPE spokesperson said. "People are put in solitary confinement for no good reason, and we find that unacceptable."
Protesters sang and some spoke. They then went round the centre shouting so that the detainees could hear them.
The rally, which went peacefully, ended in the evening.
