Reporting
In Brussels, the saturated reception network forces asylum seekers to sleep outside
Audio 01:22
Dozens of tents for asylum seekers waiting for space in an accommodation center along a canal in Brussels on March 2, 2023. © KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
For months, the reception network in Belgium has been saturated, and more than 2,000 applicants for international protection have been waiting for a place in a centre, as required by law.
Many are therefore forced to sleep on the street and a makeshift camp is growing in the municipality of Molenbeek.
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With our correspondent in Brussels,
Laure Broulard
More than a hundred tents now line the canal that separates the municipality of Molenbeek from the city center of Brussels.
On the sidewalk, in front of his tent, Husam, a Yemeni asylum seeker, despairs.
“
I left Yemen to escape death.
Now I am here or I risk being killed by cold, weather and hunger.
It's really difficult.
»
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has installed access to running water and toilets there and is sounding the alarm.
"
We have a camp there like we haven't seen in Belgium since 2015 and the Syrian crisis
," says David Vogel, advocacy officer at MSF
.
There are some 200 refugees sleeping in completely undignified conditions in the European capital.
»
#Crisedelaccueil: in the heart of #Brussels, #MSF provides access to water and sanitary facilities, and to a mobile clinic.
Our teams are forced to intervene in the chaotic situation at Petit-Château.
#MSFPress 👇https://t.co/m2d8hIZ4sU pic.twitter.com/lVfkQqxQWH
— MSF Belgium (@msfbelgique) February 27, 2023
Catherine Moureaux, the mayor of Moleenbeek, denounces an untenable situation.
She calls on the federal government to find solutions quickly.
“
We obviously need more radical, deeper solutions that would make it possible to speed up the care of these people who are here.
»
The federal reception agency has already been condemned more than 5,000 times by the Belgian courts for its inability to house the applicants and must pay penalties now estimated at several million euros.
But the government refuses, assuring that this would not solve the asylum crisis and fearing a snowball effect.
► To read also: On InfoMigrants – In Belgium, in the midst of a reception crisis, “only associations are able to act”
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