A movement called “Refugee Party’’ was presented Monday in Brussels. Launched by fifteen citizens, among whom refugees, it intends to act in favor of a more humane policy in matters of asylum and migration. It will work with the 2019 elections in view to radically change the debate about refugees before the electoral deadline.
Asylum and migration are two important issues within the context of Flemish federal and European elections planned next year. The Refugee Party, however, notes that parties always play the “migrants’’ card without sufficiently putting the human aspect at the core of their policy.
“We feel that the refugees’ voice is not being heard. The refugee is not dealt with like a normal citizen, though that is what we all are,’’ explains Hazim Kamaledin, a former Iraqi refugee who arrived in Belgium around twenty years ago.
“A refugee comes here for political reasons. As a writer and playwright, I was sentenced to death in my country. When I arrived here, I was looked at as someone who came to profit. No-one thought that I had escaped to save my life,’’ he insists.
The Refugee Party’s objective is the 2019 elections. During the next few months, the movement wishes to discuss with parties, intellectuals and citizens, in order to put forward new propositions for asylum and migration policies.
The Brussels Times
