Due to the decision to cut a total of 1,000 reception places for asylum seekers in Brussels, "tents and sleeping bags will spring up like mushrooms" in the capital, warned the citizens' platform BelRefugees.
Belgium's Minister for Asylum and Migration Anneleen Van Bossuyt (N-VA) plans to cut 1,000 of the 2,000 reception places that were agreed as part of the Brussels Deal.
The agreement dates from 2022 and was introduced because there was insufficient space within Brussels’ regular network for the reception of asylum seekers. The Brussels Region received €42 million in federal funding for this each year.
Now, however, Van Bossuyt says the need is no longer so acute, and is therefore cutting this capacity in half, stating that it is not her job to "help pay for Brussels' homeless shelters".
The citizens’ platform BelRefugees, which consists of volunteers offering support and shelter to new arrivals, considers this cutback to be irresponsible.
"This decision will send just over 1,000 people out onto the streets, with all the consequences that entails for public spaces. Tents and sleeping bags will pop up like mushrooms; buildings will be squatted," said director Mehdi Kassou.
"In 11 years, I've never seen anything like this," he said.
Pushing people further into misery
For the Brussels branch of the Flemish socialist Vooruit party, the removal of the places reserved for asylum seekers within Brussels’ homeless shelter network "exacerbates human suffering and puts the quality of life in our city under even greater strain", according to Vooruit.
"It is incomprehensible that Minister Van Bossuyt should, on his own initiative, scrap half of the accommodation places in the Brussels Deal. You do not solve problems by pushing people even further into misery,” said Vooruit.
The Brussels branch of Vooruit continues to advocate for "an asylum policy that is fair, but also strict when necessary", but added that the decision by the federal Minister for Asylum and Migration will achieve very little.
"As long as people have no prospects, they will not simply disappear. Fewer reception places do not mean fewer people in Brussels, but rather more people on the streets," they said. "This increases human suffering and puts the quality of life in our city under even greater strain.”
The Brussels branch of the Social Democratic Party also criticises a lack of good governance on the part of the federal N-VA minister.
"Good governance requires consultation and cooperation between all levels of government," they said. "We are calling for an approach that is both humane and efficient, and we will raise this issue tomorrow in the Brussels Parliament."
