Demir: “Jabbeke’s refusal for emergency center has little to do with PFAS”
That is what Flemish Minister of the Environment Zuhal Demir (N-VA) said in parliament on Wednesday after a question from Stefaan Sintobin (Vlaams Belang).
The mayor of Jabbeke is blocking the arrival of an emergency center for asylum seekers in his municipality because of possible PFAS pollution. CD&V member Frank Casteleyn has been opposing the federal government’s plan for several weeks in which 200 asylum seekers receive emergency shelter at a site of the Buildings Agency in Jabbeke. It is a former barracks of the Civil Protection.
According to Minister Demir, an exploratory soil investigation is being carried out on the site today and on December 7. In the meantime, the Agency for Care & Health has issued ‘no regret measures’.
Other motifs
According to the minister, however, mayor Casteleyn has other motives. “I understand perfectly that he is against the arrival of an asylum center, but then he should have a conversation with his party colleague, State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor,” she said.
In his response, Stefaan Sintobin admitted that his question was prompted by the fact that his party also does not want the asylum center in Jabbeke. “But it also seems strange to me that the Agency for Care and Health declares the site safe without having done a single investigation,” he said.