ABOLISH DETENTION CENTERS
Annual March Against the Vottem Detention Center (Sunday, April 12, 2026)
ABOLISH DETENTION CENTERS
We are sharing and supporting the annual march against the Vottem detention center, organized by CRACPE (Collective for Resistance Against Centers for Foreigners) this Sunday, April 12.
The Vottem detention centre (near Liège) was opened by the Belgian government next to the military barracks in March 1999, 27 years ago. It has a capacity of 119 places in four different wings, with around 600 people detained there each year (according to figures from 2024). Currently, the centre of Vottem is the only one in Wallonia, unless the planned detention centre in Jumet (near Charleroi) goes ahead.
✊ Meet in Liège on Sunday, April 12, 2026
➡️1:00 PM Departure from Place Saint-Lambert
➡️2:00 PM Enclos des Fusillés
➡️3:30 PM In front of the Vottem detention center
CRACPE press release and call to action for April 12:
Your friends, your neighbors, their children, they are under threat, and so are you!
Arizona is putting in place the most inhumane and freedom-destroying immigration policy ever.
A draft bill provides that arrests of undocumented individuals may be carried out at their homes: home visits. If this draft bill is passed, it means : authorization to force entry, to search, including your home if you are harboring an undocumented person, perhaps in the early morning, in the presence of children…
The Arizona government has implemented the most inhumane and freedom-destroying immigration policy of all time.
This government has taken a series of measures that further restrict the right to asylum and reduce the capacity to receive people seeking international protection. It undermines the right to live as a family by making family reunification more difficult. It plans to sharply increase the number of detentions in closed centers and, consequently, deportations. New closed centers for foreigners have been announced, notably in Jumet. Certain asylum claims will be processed on an expedited basis in order to send back people who have fled situations of insecurity and distress only to be sent back to them.
Detention centers are prisons, lawless zones, where violent methods are used to force people to accept deportation. Detention, and the fear of repatriation, lead to suicide attempts, suicides, and immense psychological consequences.
We reject the far-right shift implemented by this government: no, migrants are not criminals to be locked up! Others policies are possible: the Spanish government has decided on a major regularization of “undocumented” people, because they contribute, with all their skills, to the country’s economic and social development! (social security contributions, taxes, cultural contributions…)
WE REITERATE OUR DEMANDS:
✅ The abolition of detention centers for foreigners
✅ An end to deportations
✅ An asylum and immigration policy that respects human rights: in particular the right to asylum, the right to live with one’s family, the right to social protection, and the right to privacy.
✅ NO to home raids and arrests of undocumented migrants!
✅ Regularization of undocumented migrants
✅ Freedom of movement and settlement for all
