Flemish Minister for Society Bart Somers has lashed out strongly at Unia in the Flemish Parliament. The interfederal equal opportunities center indicates on its website that it no longer deals with files in the field of Dutch-language education and housing in Flanders pending the Flemish exit from Unia. The Open Vld minister finds that “astonishing”. “Unia is letting the people down,” it sounds.
The Equal Opportunities Committee of the Flemish Parliament has given the green light for the establishment of the Flemish Human Rights Institute. That institute must absorb the Flemish exit from Unia – planned for March 2023.
The Unia website states that pending the exit, the center will continue to register discrimination reports relating to Flemish competences. But then follows: “Unia does not open new files in connection with discrimination in the field of Dutch-language education and housing in Flanders.”
“Scandalous”
It was Flemish MP Tom Ongena (Open Vld) who brought the matter up to the committee. He called Unia’s attitude “outrageous”.
He was endorsed in this by the Minister of Society. “What Unia is doing now is unacceptable,” Somers said sharply. According to him, Unia is thereby abandoning tenants who are discriminated against. “We will pay Unia until March 15. We contribute so that Unia can protect those people. That they now say that they no longer do that is completely unacceptable,” says Somers.
“Even if we stopped paying them, you would expect an institution like Unia to still defend those people. That they don’t is astonishing to me,” Somers concluded.
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