Months go by and the situation gets worse. Right in the heart of Brussels, the queues are getting longer and longer, along the “Petit-Château”, the reception center for asylum seekers. On the right, families and unaccompanied foreign minors wait without masking their concern, even if most will be accommodated. On the left, the line of men, including many Burundians, Afghans, Yemenis or Palestinians, follows the brick wall of the building, branches off and stretches for several tens of meters. They don’t really dare to hope anymore.
These migrants have been denied access to the reception center for months. « However, it is illegal not to grant a place to an asylum seeker. Material assistance, and therefore accommodation, is a right », recall Helene Asselman, the organization flamande Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen.
On January 21, the court of first instance ordered the Belgian State and the Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (Fedasil) to pay a fine of 5,000 euros per day in the event that ” at least one person having submitted an application for international protection and wishing to exercise their right to reception will have been refused “. The reception network has been saturated for months, despite its 31,433 beds and the erratic opening of emergency places. The penalties have not been paid.
“I don’t feel really human anymore”
With the help of lawyers, aspiring refugees regularly turn to justice and introduce unilateral requests. Every time, or almost, the court orders Fedasil to find a reception solution. The federal agency has received more than 2,000 convictions. However, that doesn’t change much. At the Petit-Château, places are sometimes granted in dribs and drabs to men who can brandish their court order. However, this is not a viaticum towards immediate accommodation.
From 7:30 a.m., hundreds of them try their luck, while the Serve the City association distributes some food. « I’ve been trying every day for two months, testifies Safi, a young Afghan. Fedasil people tell me “I’m sorry”. But I don’t really feel human anymore. I have nothing. No clothes, no money. I sleep in parks or against a wall. But I remain determined. »
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Further on, a man offers himself a rudimentary facial wash with a bottle of water, close to the urinals available to them, which stink. « Of course, it wouldn’t be like that if we were Ukrainians », says a Burundian, tired of waiting for two weeks. A “double weight, two measures” that the associations also note. « For the Ukrainians, emergency places and reception villages were quickly set up. This shows that not all options are being used to solve the reception crisis”laments Helene Asselman.
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