The French-speaking League for Human Rights (LDH) is taking the Belgian state to court for “crimes against humanity” for failing to comply with the quota for resettling asylum seekers in the refugee camps in Greece, the organisation announced on Friday.
The European Union introduced the quota for resettling asylum seekers in 2015. ”This non-compliance has directly contributed to the overcrowding in the asylum seekers’ camps in the Greek islands, especially that of Moria,” LDH said in a press release.
The league believes that Belgium committed crimes against humanity by violating European law and abandoning asylum seekers in Greece “in inhumane and degrading conditions”.
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"Due to an influx of asylum seekers in Italy and Greece, the EU imposed quotas for the resettlement of these people in 2015. By September 2017, Belgium had taken in 677 people from Greece seeking international protection, while our country had to resettle 2,415 people," the league said, based on a report from the European Commission.
Since the Belgian state knows that in the camps on the Greek islands “tens of thousands of people are systematically subjected to inhumane living conditions”, the league believes that the state is responsible for crimes against humanity.
As a result, it sued the state at the Brussels Court of First Instance.
