Boat-people memorial

Updated April 15, 2024

Parc d’Avroy in Liège | Map and Routes

## Boat-People Memorial in Liège: A Quiet Corner of Parc d’Avroy with a Global Story

In the middle of Liège’s busy boulevard belt, Parc d’Avroy gives you trees, a lake, and a surprising amount of twentieth-century history. Among its statues of Charlemagne and resistance fighters, there’s a much smaller monument you could easily miss: the Boat-People Memorial (often described locally as the stèle des boat-people vietnamiens).

It’s a simple stone stele with an etched boat and an inscription from Vietnamese refugees thanking the city of Liège, Belgium, and other host countries. It stands as part of a wider network of memorials to the Vietnamese “boat people” scattered across Europe, North America, and Australia.

This guide walks you through what the memorial represents, how to visit it, and how to get more out of a stop in Parc d’Avroy and Liège around it.

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## What the Boat-People Memorial Commemorates

### Who were the Vietnamese “boat people”?

After the fall of Saigon in April 1975, hundreds of thousands of people fled Vietnam by sea, often in overloaded, unseaworthy boats. Many faced storms, piracy, malnutrition, and pushbacks from nearby countries. Academic estimates suggest more than a million people attempted the journey between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s, and a very large number died at sea; some scholars describe the Pacific as the “largest Vietnamese cemetery on the planet.”

Belgium took in only a small number of these refugees compared with countries like the United States, Canada, or Australia. One study notes that roughly twenty boat people were welcomed in Liège itself, forming the core of a small but active Vietnamese community that later organized multiple cultural, religious, and advocacy associations in the city.

### A small stele with a big message

The memorial in Parc d’Avroy is intentionally modest compared with nearby monuments. Archival documentation describes it as a “small memorial stelae dedicated to the Vietnamese boat people with an etched image of a boat.”

Mapping data for Parc d’Avroy labels it explicitly as “Boat-people vietnamiens – stèle de remerciements des réfugiés et boat-people vietnamiens adressés à la Ville de Liège, à la Belgique et aux autres pays d’accueil”—a stele of thanks from Vietnamese refugees and boat people to Liège, Belgium, and other host countries.

The Liège stele is part of a wider commemorative pattern. The article on Vietnamese boat people memorials lists Liège among cities that have erected monuments to remember those who fled and those who died, alongside sites in Canada, Switzerland, the United States, Germany, France, Australia, and former refugee-camp islands in Southeast Asia.

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## Location: Where to Find the Memorial in Liège

– Address: Parc d’Avroy, 4000 Liège, Belgium
– Coordinates: approximately 50.6330° N, 5.5689° E, within the elongated park between Boulevard d’Avroy and Avenue Rogier on the left bank of the Meuse.

Parc d’Avroy is a long, narrow park running parallel to some of Liège’s main traffic arteries. It has a lake, tree-lined paths, and several monuments:

– Statue équestre de Charlemagne (Charlemagne on horseback)
– Monument national à la Résistance
– Monument à Charles Rogier
– Stèle de Gernika (Guernica memorial)
– Stèle des boat-people vietnamiens (the Boat-People Memorial)

The Boat-People stele is one of several smaller memorials; don’t expect a large sculptural group. If you’re navigating in the park, it helps to know that mapping services list it in the “Things to See” section under memorials, near other artworks and monuments in the central portion of the park.

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## How to Visit: Practical Details

### Getting there

By train
– Travel to Liège-Guillemins, the city’s main station, which is on major intercity and international lines (Brussels, Cologne, Aachen, etc.).
– From Liège-Guillemins, Parc d’Avroy is within walking distance: it stretches from near the station towards the city center along Boulevard d’Avroy.

Some third-party guides mention taking local buses from Liège-Guillemins to stops by Parc d’Avroy; local routes and fares can change, so it’s worth checking current timetables and ticket prices with TEC (Wallonia’s transport operator) or at the station when you arrive.

By foot from the city center
The park sits between the historic core and the Guillemins district. Walking along Boulevard d’Avroy or Avenue Rogier, you’ll naturally pass it; there are multiple entrances and crossing points.

By car
Parc d’Avroy is in a dense urban area with mixed parking rules. Some sources note limited street parking around the park and urge visitors to check signage and local regulations, which can vary by day and time and may be updated by the city.

### Opening hours and access

Parc d’Avroy is a public city park. Standard Belgian municipal-park practice is open access during daylight hours, but specific opening and closing times, as well as any seasonal restrictions, are set by the City of Liège and can be updated. There’s no ticketed entry or dedicated gate just for the Boat-People Memorial. (If you need exact hours for your dates, verify with the city’s official information channels, as this can change.)

### On-site facilities

Recent walking-app data for Parc d’Avroy lists:

– Paths suitable for walking
– Restrooms
– Bicycle parking
– Various artworks and memorials
– Nearby museum: Trinkhall Museum, on the park’s edge

These details are based on open-data mapping and app documentation and could be revised by the providers or the city over time, so treat them as indicative rather than guaranteed.

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## What to Look For at the Memorial

Because the Liège memorial is small, it rewards close, slow viewing rather than quick photos. Here’s what you’ll typically notice, based on documented descriptions and park inventories:

– The form: A simple stone stele or slab, rather than a full-scale sculpture.
– The motif: An etched image of a boat—stylized but recognizable enough to evoke the fragile vessels used by refugees.
– The inscription: A dedication from Vietnamese refugees and boat people expressing thanks to Liège, Belgium, and other host countries. The exact layout and language are recorded in French-language park data; minor wording details may differ between sources.

Given the subject matter, it’s worth treating the space as a quiet spot for reflection. This is not a playground monument or a photo prop; it commemorates mass death, risky escape journeys, and the political context of post-war Southeast Asia.

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## Context: Vietnamese Community and Memory in Liège

Research on Vietnamese democratic activism and memory work in Europe highlights Liège as one of the early hubs for Vietnamese students and refugees after 1975.

Key points that help frame the memorial:

– Around twenty boat people are reported to have been welcomed in Liège, on top of earlier arrivals through other channels.
– Over time, local Vietnamese associations formed around religion, culture, martial arts, and political advocacy. Named groups include:
– Communauté belgo-vietnamienne
– Association des Vietnamiens libres de Liège
– Catholic and Buddhist associations (including a pagoda)
– A Vovinam-Viet Vo Dao martial arts association
– Viet Tân, a transnational political party
– These groups collectively organize annual commemorations such as:
– Trần Văn Bá remembrance (January 8)
– Vietnamese New Year (late January/early February)
– Hùng Kings Festival (April)
– Fall of Saigon commemoration (April 30, in Brussels)
– Mid-Autumn Festival (September)
– Human rights-focused events later in the year.

While not every event is directly tied to the Parc d’Avroy stele, the memorial sits inside this wider ecosystem of community memory, activism, and cultural life.

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## Combining the Memorial with a Walk in Parc d’Avroy

If you’re already in the park to see the Boat-People Memorial, it’s worth making a short loop to connect it with other pieces of public art:

– Charlemagne statue: A large equestrian monument to the emperor whose dynasty has deep historical ties to the region.
– Monument national à la Résistance: Commemorating resistance movements during the Second World War.
– Stèle de Gernika: A memorial to the bombing of Guernica in 1937, with an explicit anti-fascist message.
– Monuments to Charles Rogier and Jean d’Ardenne: Anchoring Belgian political and literary history in the park.

Seen together with the Boat-People stele, these works trace a line from medieval empire to modern nationalism, anti-fascist resistance, and post-colonial refugee movements. For a short city-park walk, it’s an unusually dense timeline of European and global history.

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## Responsible and Inclusive Visiting

Because the Boat-People Memorial deals with forced migration, war, and loss, it’s worth approaching the site with sensitivity:

– Photography: Casual photos are generally acceptable in public Belgian parks, but consider framing the memorial in a way that reflects its commemorative function rather than using it solely as a backdrop.
– Language and conversation: When talking about the Vietnamese boat people, avoid dehumanizing terms and remember that many survivors and their descendants are still alive—some in Liège itself. The very term “boat people” is contested in some contexts; here it appears in the memorial’s own label, but people’s self-identification can vary.
– Comparisons to current migration debates: The memorial focuses on refugees from Vietnam in a specific historical and political context. Drawing parallels to today’s migration routes (Mediterranean, English Channel, etc.) can be useful for reflection, but each situation has its own dynamics, law, and actors.

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## Suggested Reading and Further Exploration

If the memorial sparks your curiosity, a few documented sources provide deeper context:

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