2023-09-12 17:02:00
The Council of State should, logically, rule against the suspension of the reception of single men seeking asylum announced by the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration. Two weeks ago, Nicole de Moor (CD&V) took this measure in order to anticipate the peak in arrivals of applicants for international protection in Belgium. The objective put forward was to ensure that, this winter, no child sleeps on the street as was the case last year.
The announcement, however, sparked an outcry, both in the associative and political world. And for good reason, the decision is contrary to Belgian reception law which provides that each asylum seeker has a place in the Fedasil network. Eight associations, including the Order of French-speaking and German-speaking bars (Avocats.be), Ciré and Vluchtelingenwerk had filed an extremely urgent appeal before the high administrative authority, where the case was pleaded this Tuesday.
The decision is expected in the coming days, but the outcome leaves little doubt. This is evidenced by the position of the auditor who ruled in favor of the applicants. In her opinion which is generally followed by the judge, the auditor notes, in addition to a formal argument, that the decision is a violation of the Belgian law on reception and that the saturation of the network cannot constitute a reason for breaching the obligations of State. The listener further considers that the objective of the Secretary of State announced by a press release despite its illegality, would be to dissuade asylum seekers from coming to Belgium.
“We had a discussion between adults”: behind the scenes of the government agreement on the temporary suspension of the reception of single men
No miracle solution
“It is not because the Council of State says that it is not legal that, suddenly, there will be additional places which will appear”, retorts the cabinet of Nicole de Moor, who actually expects to so that the suspension of reception is postponed. Clearly, there will be nothing to announce to compensate for the cancellation of the decision.
On the ground, around 2,000 single men are still waiting for a reception place in a saturated network, despite the creation of numerous places and a record capacity of nearly 35,000 places. “Creating new places remains a complicated task! We will open a new center in Grimbergen within a few weeks (after months of discussions with the local authorities – Editor’s note) with around a hundred places. However, this Tuesday alone, 260 people came forward to request international protection in Belgium,” notes the Secretary of State.
A new version of the winter plan will soon be presented to the main ministers of the federal government, but we should not expect a miracle solution, we are already warning. The Secretary of State also indicates that she is working on the implementation of other actions which should reduce the number of arrivals and speed up exits, but which should not have any short-term effect.
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