Protest against immigration policies outside Prime Minister’s office

Amnesty International activists unfurled a banner depicting silhouettes of families with children behind bars in front of the Prime Minister’s office on Tuesday afternoon denouncing the arrival of a first family at the 127bis closed center in Steenokkerzeel. The organization asks the Belgian authorities to « put an end to the detention of children, accompanied or not, for reasons related to immigration. This practice is always contrary to the best interests of the child. »

 

La Belgique enferme à nouveau des enfants migrants en violation flagrante des droits de l’enfant. Une détention qui a des effets néfastes sur la santé mentale et le développement des enfants. C’est inacceptable ! Nous dénonçons cette politique inhumaine et demandons aux autorités de mettre fin à cette pratique. #JeSuisHumain-e #stopfamilydetention #migrants #refugeeswelcome #nochildrendetentioncenters #OnNEnfermePasUnEnfant #point #humanrights

A post shared by Amnesty Belgium Fr (@amnestybefr) on Aug 14, 2018 at 8:00am PDT

 

« Belgium operates today a worrying backtracking, » elaborated the organization. « Rather than justifying the detention of children by the desire to preserve the family unit, the government should, given the need to keep the family together, provide for a presumption against the detention of families and put in place alternatives. »