The State of Belgium and Fedasil, the federal agency for the reception of asylum seekers, have been told to pay the water and electricity charges of a public building occupied by asylum-seekers on Rue de la Loi in Brussels.
A ruling to that effect was handed down on Monday by the Justice of the Peace of Brussels in response to an appeal by the State and Fedasil against a 29 June decision by the Brussels Labour Court ordering them to guarantee decent living conditions for the squatters.
The justice of the peace was categorical. It is “indisputable that the plaintiffs […] committed an intentional act by occupying the building […] and that it was as a result of this occupation that they consumed the water and electricity," the judge said, "but the Belgian State and Fedasil are ill-advised to rely on this fault to seek to exonerate themselves from any liability."
"We must not lose sight of the fact that the Belgian State and Fedasil committed the first fault, namely failing to implement on time and in good time their obligations to receive all applicants for international protection,” he added.
The judge opined further that if the two institutions “had made the periodic penalty payments to which they were sentenced [for their poor management of the reception crisis], the applicants would have had some funds available for accommodation.”
“It was because of these culpable abstentions that the applicants for international protection squatted in the building, in order to have the protection of a roof and walls and not to be exposed day and night to the elements," the judge said. "The fault of the victim, caused by the fault of the person responsible, does not exonerate the latter from responsibility."
