Manifestation at the detention centre 127bis in Steenokkerzeel
Detention centres are prisons, lawless zones, which use violent methods to force people to cooperate with their removal from the country. Detention and the fear of deportation have numerous effects, including suicide attempts, suicides, and immense psychological consequences. Every year, thousands of people are detained by the Belgian state in the country’s six closed centres. Cut off from the world with no release date in sight, these people denounce the devastating effects of deprivation of liberty, as well as the poor conditions of detention. It is to show them our support and solidarity that we will gather outside the gates of the 127bis closed centre this Saturday, 23 May.
This march will also be an opportunity to revisit the Belgian government’s ‘Integrated Return Infrastructure Plan’, which aims to increase capacity in the detention centres by a further 500 places. In August 2025, construction work began on the future short-stay departure centre in Steenokkerzeel. The short-stay centre in Steenokkerzeel will be built between the existing detention centres in Steenokkerzeel, namely the ‘Caricole transit centre’ and the ‘127bis repatriation centre’.
The Arizona government is implementing a racist migration policy, the most inhumane and freedom-destroying of all time.
Whilst the Belgian state is regularly criticised for failing to fulfil its obligations regarding the reception of asylum seekers on its territory, the measures taken by the government further restrict the right to asylum and reduce the capacity to accommodate those seeking international protection.
These measures undermine the right to family life by making family reunification more difficult; they plan to significantly increase the number of detention places in closed centres, notably through the construction of new closed centres, including one in Jumet (Charleroi), and thus the number of deportations; they target both those who have recently arrived in the country and those who have been living in Belgium for years and are denied access to documents. We reject the shift to the far right being implemented by this government: no to the criminalisation of migrants!
WE WILL MARCH THIS SATURDAY, 23 MAY, FOR
✅ The release of all those currently detained
✅ The closure of detention centres
✅ 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.
✅ SAY NO to home raids and the arrest of undocumented migrants!
✅ The regularisation of undocumented migrants
✅ Freedom of movement and settlement
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL – NIEMAND IS ILLEGAAL – NO ONE IS ILLEGAL
Practical Information 📍 Nossegem Station 📅 23 May 🕕 2pm → 4pm
