De Moor: “Decentralizing emergency shelter for Ukrainian refugees does not solve the problem” | Inland

The successor of Sammy Mahdi was invited to the competent House Committee to explain her policy statement. There were no big surprises. After all, as is well known, the new state secretary was Mahdi’s chief of staff and is therefore building further on his policy. After the summer, she will present a policy memorandum to parliament.

However, she was presented with many questions about the reception of Ukrainians. She defended the #spotvrij initiative launched by her predecessor. “At the time of the massive influx, it ensured that we were able to provide everyone with a bed. It has captured and organized solidarity.” Because it was not a long-term solution, consultations with the regions followed. The federal level provides emergency shelters, after which the Ukrainians are dispatched to shelters in the regions.

This emergency shelter takes place in the center Ariane in Brussels, where there are 1,500 places. Normally the Ukrainians would stay there for three to five days, but there is a problem with the flow to the shelters in the regions. “We have been able to keep the occupancy rate around 200 to 300 people for a long time, but the occupancy has increased enormously in recent weeks. We are now over a thousand people and the maximum capacity has almost been reached,” says de Moor.

“Fedasil is not throwing in the towel,” emphasized the state secretary. No one is put out on the street, but residents are asked whether they can find a solution for their shelter themselves. If that doesn’t work, they can stay, the Moor assured. To date, 51,000 refugees have been registered at the Heysel. There are 120 certificates per day: 35 percent – or 42 people per day – have reception needs. In the meantime, consultations were held last Friday between the Prime Minister and the Prime Ministers.

Brussels Prime Minister Rudi Vervoort argued today in favor of decentralizing emergency shelters, so that they also take place in Flanders and Wallonia. The State Secretary is not against this per se, but the location of the emergency shelter is not the fundamental problem. Rather, these are the places to let the refugees move on.

She denied that the federal level was intended to provide emergency shelters for thousands of places. In addition to Ariane, there are 300 places in Jette. That should be more than enough in view of the estimated number of refugees who would come to our country. De Moor quoted a scenario of 78,000 refugees by the end of the year.