The housing crisis for migrants and asylum seekers in Brussels appears to have worsened. Since the recent evacuation of several hundred people from a squat, the number of tents along the city’s canals and streets has multiplied.
The reception crisis to house migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Belgium is worsening. That's according to a report by the Flemish Refugee Action group, which published its findings on February 16.
A tent camp in the center of the city, which Flemish public broadcaster VRT said initially housed around 30 people, swelled to 150 or more after the authorities cleared a squat housing a few hundred migrants and asylum seekers in the center of the Belgian capital Brussels.
According to the news agency dpa, every day more and more tents are being pitched alongside the canal in the center of the city.
'Every day new tents are seen'
The tents stretch from in front of the Petit Chateau, where a Fedasil (Belgian asylum agency) arrival center is situated, to the Palais des Droits. According to the news agency, some of those camping have received asylum seeker status but no place to stay in safe and warm accommodation.
The authorities are looking for more hotel rooms to house those now camping out, according to dpa. Aid agencies hand out blankets and sleeping bags to those who have pitched their small tents on the hard concrete pavements.
Some of those who have sought refuge in tents may have previously been staying in a squat in Paleizenstraat in Schaarbeek, said the report from Flemish Refugee Action. It describes conditions inside the squat as "unhygienic and unsafe" and says authorities evacuated the building on the evening of February 15.
Two residents of the squat, Yassin and Riazullah, told the organization that it was "quite dangerous there." They said there were a lot of thieves living in the squat, and some people selling drugs. The groups would often fight, so that they would "see the blood."
Reported death at the squat
VRT news reported on the morning of the evacuation that a person had died at the squat, although it said at the time that "prosecutors are yet to comment on the exact circumstances of the death."
Before the evacuation, VRT said, the Belgian authorities began trying to offer the registered asylum seekers at the squat alternative accommodation in reception centers. But more people eager for a place in a center joined the group and things reportedly got out of hand. "Chaotic events" resulted in blankets catching fire and the fire authorities being called, reported VRT.
Many of those who had been living in the squat "ended up outside on the pavement" with their belongings still inside the closed building, reported VRT. The former squat residents were "all in the street," said reporter Marjan Temmerman, describing the "enormous desperation" of residents.
Flemish Refugee Action said it "feared a repeat of this tragedy as long as the situation of people without accommodation remains desperate." The group called on the Belgian army to open extra reception centers.
No priority for reception
According to Flemish Refugee Action’s report, about 160 of the registered asylum seekers at the squat were transferred to a center in Ruisbroek, but other residents ended up outside the Petit Chateau. On February 16, the group said it counted at least 60 tents. In a second report on February 17, the group said it had been informed that "although many [of those in tents] are asylum seekers, these people will not receive a reception place as a priority."
The organization added that "thanks to local residents and volunteer groups, they were able to spend the night in a tent." They said the problems in Belgium were not the result of too many asylum applications, and called for coordinated action to end the reception crisis which had continued for over a year.
Flemish Refugee Action accused the Belgian government of failing to keep its promises and not finding sufficient places for all those who needed them. They said that leaving people to sleep on the streets was "degrading."
The situation in Paleizenstraat is "the tip of the iceberg," the group said, adding that the authorities in Belgium are "legally obliged to provide shelter to people seeking asylum."
About 3,000 on waiting list
The organization said that about 3,000 people were waiting for a place in a reception center. They suggested that if each of the 581 Belgian municipalities agreed to house five of those asylum seekers, the waiting list would soon be eliminated. Many of those on the list had to wait up to four months for shelter, said Flemish Refugee Action.
On February 21, VRT said the authorities were now planning to clear the tent camp but that initial plans to start the clearance on Monday, February 20 "failed to go ahead." The authorities, according to VRT, failed to find the required number of hotel rooms to clear the tent camps. However, according to the mayor of the Brussels district where the camp is situated, the federal asylum secretary "has given a commitment to provide accommodation in a Fedasil center this week."
Fedasil itself has fallen foul of the Belgian authorities more than 6,000 times in the last year, according to Flemish Refugee Action. The group's Thomas Willekens said on February 6 that the agency, which is responsible among other things for housing migrants and asylum seekers, had been handed another conviction by the Belgian courts.
The ruling, Willekens said, "once again shows that Fedasil – and consequently the Secretary of State – ignore the right to reception, and do not seem to attach any value to the other legal rulings. This is already the Agency’s fourth conviction in the class action," Willekens told the European Council on Refugees and Exiles ECRE.
In its latest conviction, ECRE explains, Fedasil was fined €5,000 per day for the "non-respect of the right to reception" on January 19. According to ECRE, Fedasil neither paid the fines nor respected the judgment. Consequently, Flemish Refugee Action and nine other NGOs returned to court to request an increase in the fine. This was granted and set at €10,000 for every day the agency failed to respect the court's decision.