A family has illegally built a house on a vacant lot at Tour & Taxis in Brussels over the past few months. The structure, which resembles a chalet, even has electricity and heating, according to the resident.
A few months ago, a wooden house was built on a piece of land on the Tour & Taxis site, Bruzz reports. The structure appeared along the Drève Maritime cycle and footpath, which connects Rue Dieudonné Lefèvre in Laeken with Tour & Taxis Park.
Tents have often been pitched at this location (which is not far from the Humanitarian Hub on Avenue du Port), Emmanuel Baeten of the nearby Recycle cooperative told Bruzz.
The house seems to be solidly constructed and has a kind of plastic veranda, a path to the front door and a solar panel on the roof.
The family living there reportedly fled their country, but is not being granted asylum in Belgium. Refugee Ma lives in the house with his wife and young child. They built the house themselves with materials they found or were given, the man told Bruzz.
School to be built
The family left their home country six years ago, saying it was not safe for them there. For security reasons, the family prefers not to say which country they come from.
They said they flew to the Balkans and travelled on to Belgium. For about eight months now, they have been living in Brussels. Ma also said that they tried to obtain asylum in both Belgium and Norway, but were unsuccessful.
According to Baeten, the house has been there for months, but no one has asked any questions about it. The Port of Brussels, which owns land adjacent to the plot, has not received any complaints about the residents either.
The specific site where they live is owned by the City of Brussels, which wants to build a Dutch-language school there in the long term. However, those plans are still in the early stages, the office of city councillor for Urban Development and Dutch-language Education Anaïs Maes (Vooruit) told Bruzz.
The office confirms that the family has submitted an asylum application, but has not received a positive response and has exhausted all legal remedies. They added that as long as there are no concrete plans to start the building works, the family will not be chased away.
