Dramatic photos show far-right activists getting pelted with a water cannon during a migration protest in Brussels

Reuters

• Protesters have clashed with police in Brussels while demonstrating against a UN migration pact.
• The United Nations signed the first ever international deal on the migration crisis, despite opposition from the US.
• The “March against Marrakech” pledged to turn a “political crisis into the awakening of our people.”

Police in the Belgium capital were forced to use water cannons and tear gas on activists protesting against a UN migration pact signed on Monday.

Reuters said the protesters were far-right sympathizers who had descended on the European Commission headquarters in Brussels as part of the “March against Marrakech” demonstration.

The United Nations signed the first ever international deal on the migration crisis in the Moroccan city earlier this week. It promised a global approach to better managing migration, despite vociferous opposition from the US, which said last year that it interferes with American sovereignty.

March against Marrakech’s Facebook page said 12,000 planned to attend the demonstration. “We can’t just stand by and watch, we need to show the will of the majority,” it said. “Let’s turn this political crisis into the awakening of our people.”

But the protests appeared to spill over into violence as demonstrators clashed with police. Scroll on for some of the most dramatic photos from the protest in Brussels:

Thousands of protesters gathered in Brussels, including Filip Dewinter (center), a leading figure in Vlaams Belang, a right-wing Flemish nationalist party.

Reuters

But the protests soon began to turn ugly. Here demonstrators are trying to topple an EU flag outside the European Commission headquarters.

Reuters

Mounted police attempted to control the crowds.

Reuters

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