University professor Abdelkader Hakkou, vice-president of the University Mohammed I of Oujda, who was held in the closed center of Steenokkerzeel (Flemish Region) after his arrival at Charleroi airport, denounced his «humiliation». «I stayed all night on a chair, it's humiliating. It's hard to accept,» said the professor to the media after his release on Sunday afternoon, following the intervention of officials of the Free University of Brussels (ULB), which invited him to Belgium in the framework of an interuniversity cooperation project and after contacts established between the Moroccan Embassy and the immigration Office. «I was surprised by how I was received at the airport by the police, while my ULB colleagues were waiting for me outside. I lived a particular gear these two and a half days, it's a shame for a democratic country that respects human rights,» he denounced. «I think Belgium is going the wrong way. We must stop running behind the extreme right. This is not the right track», said Yvon Englert, rector of the ULB. «We need to open up to the world. We especially need the university to have serene collaborations with all the countries, including those from the south, and I would like to remind you that this professor is here in the context of a collaboration financed by the public money, which makes the situation even more surreal.»
