Gathering in Liège, Espace Tivoli (Place Saint-Lambert) from 2 p.m.
The measures announced by the Secretary of State for Asylum and Immigration Théo Franken, and the current government are once again stigmatising foreigners. The discourse is very clear: asylum and residence permits seekers are fraudsters, they sould be penalised and dissuaded. On the agenda: hunt for cohabitations and mariages of convenience, creation of 100 places more in closed centres, forecasting of 1,000 forced repatriations more per year with a collective flight each month, limitation of the number of asylum requests that may be introduced, etc.
And above all, creation of new wings in the 127bis closed centre to imprison again families with children; which did not exist since 2009, and this although Belgium has already been condemned three times by the European Court of Human Rights for the detention of minors.
Closed centres remain prisons that hide their names; they exert daily violence towards the people who are detained in them. Indeed, the detention aims at breaking the opposition to deportation. This violence reaches its peak when the person is brought to the plane: handcuffed, tied up, blows, insults, etc. Complaints have been lodged.
Since July 2014, following a decision by the former government, a ‘special’ wing has been opened for detainees considered as ‘unmanageable’: those who rebel, those who come out of jail who get a dual penalty, sick people who should be taken care of in relevant institutions, etc. This section enables to maintain people in isolation for weeks without rules; it is a kind of hidden cell, a prison inside the prison.
More than ever, let’s remind our claims and support the undocumented who resumed fighting for their dignity!
No more closed centres for foreigners
Immediate stop of deportations
For an asylum and migration policy that supports human rights
For a regularisation of the undocumented
