On Saturday the December 10, 2011, the International Day of Human Rights, Catholic Workers in Belgium organized a "wake" mourning the detention of refugees and “illegalized” immigrants.
Belgium has six deportation centers (a type of border prison), and number seven is being built. Eight thousand people pass through these centers each year in Belgium alone. Some people are held for a few weeks, others for several months or even longer. In different individual cases Belgium has been convicted by the European Court of Human Rights violations for illegal detention of refugees. Still, the construction of the new center just goes ahead.
It was an inter-religious wake, with 45 participants from different communities including Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant and Muslim. At the wake each community brought prayer, song, biblical reading, meditation or a witness, according to particular tradition.
The wake had a good media response and was on local and national television.
Fr Johannes Ghent CW johan@catholicworker.be.
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