Belgium is using flights originally designed to deport asylum seekers residing in the country irregularly to transport them back to the Member State where they entered the European Union as stipulated under the EU's Dublin Regulation.
In the midst of Belgium's ongoing reception crisis, the state has focussed on short-term solutions –instead of creating and providing the necessary shelter for people — and continues to look at different measures to slow down the arrival of people and speed up the outflow.
One of these is deporting people who applied for international protection in Belgium last year but were already registered in another European country, De Standaard reported on Friday. This was the case in almost half of all applications for international protection last year, according to State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor (CD&V).
Increasing 'effective' returns
European regulations, specifically the Dublin Regulation, stipulate that the applications of asylum seekers must be processed by the EU Member State where they first entered.
De Moor argued that people who then applied for protection in Belgium, despite having arrived through another Member State, should be sent back, but also that the current number of people who effectively return to the country of the entrance is too low. Meanwhile, if a "Dublin transfer" cannot take place within six months, Belgium becomes responsible to accommodate the person in question.
Asylum seekers holding their hands over a fire in front of a tent at the canal in Molenbeek. Credit: Belga/ Hatim Kaghat
To convince more asylum seekers to return voluntarily to the EU country where they first arrived in, a so-called "Dublin centre" was set up last year. However, some reportedly "show resistance" when asked to leave. Some of these people have recently been forcibly returned.
For this purpose, Belgium is relying on so-called "special flights," chartered planes which until now were only used to return people in "illegal residence" to their home countries. In these planes, there are two police officers per passenger, and asylum seekers can even be handcuffed, depending on their risk assessment.
Since the end of 2022, a total of 43 people have already been transported out of Belgium in this way, of which 30 were returned to Austria and 13 to Croatia.
Questionable results
According to de Moor, the possibility of ending up on such a "special flight" acts as a deterrent, which she said is already reflected in a greater willingness to return. De Moor did not disclose the cost of such a flight.
However, the efficacy of this measure has been questioned by Thomas Willekens, a policy officer at Refugee Work Flanders (Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen). Nothing stops people simply coming back to Belgium afterwards," he noted.
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While conditions for those sleeping rough in Belgium are illegal, the situation in some other EU Member States is even worse, as shown by a recent report from the Council of Europe (CoE), which highlighted the physical mistreatment and abuse of refugees by police at EU borders as commonplace.
De Moor, however, stressed that Belgium "cannot accept all people come here because other countries do not make sufficient efforts. A strengthened commitment to Dublin procedures is needed to regain control of migration." She even went so far as to argue that there would not be a reception crisis if "these people took responsibility."
Belgium's failure to adequately respond to the rising number of asylum seekers coming to the country has resulted in thousands of people sleeping rough rather than receiving the shelter they are legally entitled to, for which it has been convicted numerous times.
