First of all it is incredible that people walked for 5 weeks 500 km, crossing 4 times the border! Every day building up the camp. always busy organising the next days. I have a lot of admiration for the people who carried on all these days.
Friday it was the day of arrival into Brussels, it wasn’t even sure where the camp could be set up at the end of the day. But the last 20 km were again powerful. We passed the European Parlement were a press conference on the streets took place and we held a sit-in. After that we joined a manifestation for the Day of Refugees. and then we arrived at Parc Maximillia where we started to build a camp, which will be the home for the action the next week. 8 refugees of We Are Here participated this weekend.
Saturday was spent by part of the camp to have meetings about organising the action week, everyone was invited to come with proposals for demonstrations and actions. Parallel a delegation of 7 cars/vans went to a support demo at the detention centre at Vottem, close to Luik.
In the evening many people of the camp joined a festival with a great and very busy concert of Max Romeo. and of course also there we took the opportunity to spread flyers and chant our songs. After the concert ended we spent over an hour with 80 people of the protest camp at the square, chanting the songs and slogans of the march. It was very powerful, with a lot of energy and very cheerful. We got a lot of nice reactions from curious bystanders. Afterwards we walked in a vivid demo in the middle of the night back to the camp. No police 🙂
Sunday we were first very worried about the Italian delegation who were on their way to Brussels stopped by the police at the border with France. 5 refugees were arrested. Euro parlementarians were contacted to put pressure on a quick release. And luckily a few hours later the refugees were released. Just after that 2 big busses with refugees from Paris arrived at the camp. Right after that we left for a spontanous demonstration into the city, we passed a closed asylum centre were wepaused to make contact with the people behind the fence and we visited a church that has been offering shelter to many refugees for the past years. We also stopped at the trademarket to make a short protest.
Today there were more demonstrations. One was at the German embassy against the eviction of the refugee school in Berlin. There was a demo at the European Parlement and at the NATO headquarter. Also this morning refugees and supporters went to an immigration office close to the camp to inform the people that are standing in line to start an asylumprocedure in Brussels, about their rights, certain risks (of detention) and options for good lawyers.
The camp is still growing. Sunday evening 300 people participated. Many of whom refugees/people without papers. More people are still arriving. The atmosphere is very vibrant and empowering. At the moment 6 refugees of We Are Here a participating the whole week. Participating people are from many different countries, there are many beautiful banners and many different and strong slogans and songs. The people we meet on the street seem interested and willing to take our flyers and start reading. The camp is very much Do It Yourself, with simple basic facilities. People sleep in small tents, big tents and even outside. A collective peoples kitchen provides food 3 times a day and people of the camp are welcome to help out in the kitchen. Toilets and water connections are simple and improvised and daily cleaned by people of the camp. During the night people take shifts in securing safety in the camp. A small media tent gives access to some computers, internet and power plugs.
This Wednesday another group of refugees from Amsterdam will go to join the protest in Brussels for a couple of days. And for Thursday, the big demo, some transport has been arranged to go back and forth.
here are a couple of videos made by supporters of WE ARE HERE / WIJ ZIJN
HIER:
– march for freedom – last day walking and arrival in brussels
– action @ vottem detention center
– demo @ night in brussels
– french delegation arrives in camp in brussels
and some news coverage:
http://torino.repubblica.it/cronaca/2014/06/22/new/la_carovana_dei_migranti_fermata_a_chamonix_ma_tra_noi_non_ci_sono_clandestini-89698698/
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/2014/06/pictures-marching-free-movement-201462111171212529.html
http://www.rtl.be/info/belgique/faitsdivers/1102141/caravane-des-migrants-quelque-150-personnes-devant-le-parlement-europeen-a-bruxelles
http://www.lacapitale.be/1036099/article/2014-06-20/la-caravane-des-sans-papiers-en-route-pour-le-parlement-europeen-a-bruxelles