Cuts to Belgium's federal budget will reduce asylum reception agency Fedasil's funding by an eye-watering 85% at a time when thousands of people are denied the right to international protection.
Led by Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA), the 'Arizona' coalition is in the process of implementing Belgium's strictest migration policy ever via the closure of legal migration routes, the reduction of asylum spaces available and a €1.6 billion budget cut to its reception and asylum system during this mandate.
"The underlying strategy is clear: reduce the inflow of migrants and increase the outflow in order to ease pressure on the country’s overstretched infrastructure," Asylum and Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt (N-VA) told The Brussels Times. "If fewer people qualify for asylum or protection in Belgium – particularly those who have already received protection elsewhere – then we simply won’t need as much reception capacity."
The €1.6 billion cuts will affect reception agency Fedasil, the General Commission for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRA) and the Immigration Office.
Fedasil is responsible for receiving international protection applicants and providing them with accommodation. Its budget will be reduced from €929 million in 2024 to €138 million in 2029 (an 85% decline). Wage costs alone will amount to €173 million this year.
The agency declined to comment on the budget cuts. However, a spokesperson said the plans were based on the reduction of spaces, so any savings figures are "premature" in the context of ongoing high demand.
There are currently 2,200 people on the waiting list to claim asylum due to this "reception crisis". All are single men as former State Secretary for Migration and Asylum Nicole De Moor (CD&V) illegally suspended reception for this cohort in August 2023.
Van Bossuyt said "The number of people on the waiting list is declining. The expectation is that, as fewer people enter the system, space will free up for those who are genuinely in need of protection."
'Downright catastrophic'
Vluchtelingwerk Vlaanderen, a non-profit organisation that provides free legal aid to asylum seekers, said the planned cuts were "downright catastrophic".
Policy officer Thomas Willekens told The Brussels Times the plans were "completely unrealistic" given that conflicts in Afghanistan, Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan will take a long time to resolve and people will not stop fleeing catastrophes in these regions. He says the prospect of a decline in the need for asylum is "wishful thinking" in this context.
The organisation calls the reduction in asylum places a violation of Belgian solidarity with other European countries under the EU Asylum and Migration Pact. If Belgium does not adequately prepare for migration influxes it may not be eligible for EU relief mechanisms.
Government to 'continue to refuse' to pay fines
The organisation also drew attention to Belgium's ongoing refusal to comply with over 12,000 court rulings which declare that the State and Fedasil have violated international and domestic law by failing to adequately welcome international protection applicants.
In 2023, a labour court imposed a daily penalty fee on the State for non-compliance with the rulings. All fines remain unpaid and Van Bossuyt said the State would "continue to refuse to pay those fines".
"Our society simply can’t bear it anymore. Belgium has reached its limits," she said. "The pressure on our social security system, on education and on housing is enormous. At a certain point, you have to say stop."
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Willekens says this line of reasoning is "dangerous" because it "scapegoats migrants for every social policy that is going wrong" and "admits that the government is not accepting the rule of law".
The Council of Europe repeated its condemnation of Belgium's "clear refusal" to comply with the court rulings last September.
An Amnesty International report published in April warned that human rights violations were becoming "systematic" in Belgium and that the "reception crisis" was the result of deliberate policies. The leading human rights organisation called on the Federal Government to provide more asylum spaces and end the suspension of asylum for single men.
