What Belgium wants, says Shila Hadji Heydari Anaraki, “is not allowed at all”. Anaraki, a German anthropologist from the Catholic University of Leuven, is clear about this: there is no legal basis whatsoever for the decision of State Secretary Nicole de Moor (Asylum and Migration, CD&V) to no longer offer shelters to male asylum seekers for the time being. The shelters are so full that families are given priority.
According to the Belgian Reception Act of 2007, asylum seekers have the right to “shelter, food, clothing, medical, social and psychological support, a daily allowance and access to legal assistance and to services such as interpreting and training”. In fact, the government is already breaking that law with every asylum seeker who has to sleep outside. “Let alone that the law provides for a distinction between different categories of people,” says Anaraki, who is researching reception centers for newcomers in Belgium and the Netherlands.
But even if it is not allowed, Belgium does it anyway. De Moor’s decision, says Anaraki, is a continuation of the practice that has been visible in the streets of Brussels for two years. Dozens of people regularly sleep outside the gate of the Klein Kasteeltje, the ‘Belgian Ter Apel’. “And those people are almost always men.” De Moor said in the Tuesday evening VRT NWS news that she “absolutely [wil] prevent children from ending up on the street”.
De Moor has already lost eight thousand lawsuits about the inadequate asylum reception under her responsibility. She categorically refuses to pay the fines imposed. And there is no one who can force the Belgian state to comply with court decisions. However, a bailiff knocked at De Moor’s office. Some furniture was removed, part of which was donated by activists to the asylum seekers on the street.
Not in a vacuum
The decision to no longer offer shelters to men was not taken in a vacuum: Belgium is experiencing the consequences of European migration patterns. Because a relatively large number of migrants cross the Mediterranean in the summer, August is a month in which many asylum seekers come to Belgium. Like the Netherlands and Austria, Belgium persistently has too few reception places for asylum seekers.
For that reason, outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, for example, has made efforts for the Tunisia deal, with the aim of limiting migrant numbers and easing the pressure on the reception centers. But since that deal was signed on July 16, the number of boat migrants from Tunisia to Italy has increased sharply. Nearly 30,000 migrants reached Italy in six weeks.
According to Anaraki, the lack of shelters is a political choice. “Belgian municipalities often reduce the reception capacity as soon as there is a dip in the number of asylum seekers. I call that yo-yo politics. When so many Ukrainians came to Belgium, none of them had to sleep on the street. So it is possible.”
It also suits some politicians, those images of full reception centers and waiting men, says the anthropologist. “It is a strong signal, for example in the negotiations on a new solidarity European migration policy: we are already full, no one can join us anymore.”
De Moor is under considerable pressure from parties such as Vlaams Belang to reduce the number of migrants. And the asylum seekers who are already there should not have it too broad. As a result, says Anaraki, those people are “pushed into the precariat.” “And then you get stories about nuisance, and about asylum seekers who are useless to the state. They are not properly taken care of, let alone allowed to work and provide for themselves.”
Dublin Guidelines
The reception crisis in Belgium does not have to have direct consequences for the Netherlands, says Giselle Schellekens, program manager for migration and asylum at research organization TNO. “After all, they have already applied for asylum elsewhere, so the Netherlands would not be able to accept them as asylum seekers in accordance with the Dublin guidelines.”
There is, however, the example of an asylum seeker in Belgium who came to the Netherlands and challenged his compulsory return to Belgium. He got right from the court: The Netherlands was not allowed to send him back to a country where asylum reception is so poorly organized. Belgium thus joined the ranks of countries such as Hungary and Greece. Shameful, says Anaraki: “We used to look at those countries and say: that could never be done here.”
And the men who do sleep on the street in Belgium? They will have to be taken care of anyway, says Schellekens. “The responsibility for this will lie with private foundations. It is always only a short-term solution.”
Third country nationals have to go page 8-9
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper on August 31, 2023.