Under the so -called “Dublin” regulation, only one European country is responsible for processing an asylum application: in general, that with which the asylum seeker registered for the first time, or by which he entered Europe. If the person tries his luck elsewhere, he must be returned to this first attachment port.
However, Belgium no longer offers sufficient guarantees in terms of respect for human rights to be considered as such an “attachment”, in substance, the Dutch Council of State. In March 2024, the same jurisdiction had nevertheless judged that Belgium was still a trusted destination for applicants for male asylum and alone. But at the time, it was expected that the Belgian authorities were going to improve the capacity.
“Information available, it appears that the promised improvements did not take place and that there is no prospect of expanding the capacity”, notes “Raad van State” on Wednesday. “The lack of reception places for apparents of isolated male asylum is no longer temporary, but has become structural. And it is not clear if this group of asylum seekers can count on emergency reception or for homeless”. Furthermore, notes the Dutch body, these men “do not have access to effective legal protection, because the Belgian authorities do not respect judgments and do not pay the on -call ones”. In its communication, the Dutch Council of State speaks of “indifference” of the Belgian authorities.
Almost a long -term visa issued on two concerns family reunification to Belgium, which is growing
A word that immediately made the Minister in charge of asylum and migration tick, the N-VA Anneleen Van Bossuyt. This reacted on Wednesday, rejecting any idea of “indifference” and ensuring that there had above all been “a structural overload (from the reception network of asylum seekers, editor’s note), for years”. “I inherited an asylum crisis,” she says.
In recent years, Belgium has indeed allowed a situation to settle in which only asylum seekers considered to be the most fragile, women, families and unaccompanied minors, are directly taken care of. Men alone have in principle also the right to be housed and fed, the time that their request for protection is processed, but in fact they are placed, if they wish, on the waiting list, for lack of places in the Fedasil network.
When the previous Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor had made the decision in August 2023 to no longer house men alone, she had an outcry. Subsequently, the Council of State had suspended the measure, without real effect on the field however. The Belgian State has been sentenced to numerous occasions in court, for the shortcomings of its reception of applicants for international protection.
According to Fedasil, there are currently about 1,800 men alone registered on this famous waiting list. When they appear at the foreigners’ office, they are told that they can register online to wait for a place to release in the reception network. Most have to wait for several months. “At the height of the crisis in the summer of 2024, there were around 4,000 people on the waiting list,” notes Benoît Mansy, spokesperson for Fedasil. There was therefore an improvement, while the network as a whole reaches a “record capacity, with currently around 35,300 places”, he specifies.
Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt recalls wanting to bet above all on a decrease in entries, an acceleration of outputs (from the country) and the fight against “abuses”. “It is necessary to be able to offer human protection to those who are entitled to it,” she says.
Asylum and migration: The Chamber approves the hardening of family reunification
