Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor has decided to temporarily stop receiving single males in the national network for the reception of asylum seekers, Fedasil, her office announced in a press release on Tuesday.
Through this decision, the Secretary of State intends to anticipate “the growing influx of families and children to absolutely avoid children ending up on the streets in winter.”
“Not wanting to be behind events, I am already taking the decision to reserve all available places for families with children,” Ms de Moor is quoted as saying in the press release.
“The high number of asylum seekers arriving in our country over the last two years is still putting a strain on the reception network," the Secretary of State explained. "We continue to open new centres, but last year everyone saw how difficult it is to create reception places. I absolutely want to avoid children ending up on the streets.”
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Belgium “has been doing more than its fair share for a long time,” she stressed, pointing out that this year “19,000 asylum seekers have registered in Belgium, compared with 1,500 in Portugal, a country with a population similar to Belgium’s.”
The Secretary of State says she is working with her European colleagues on a migration pact that will fundamentally reform European asylum and migration policy and which, in time, should also make it possible to improve the situation in Belgium.
“The pact will include a rapid procedure at external borders and a fairer distribution of asylum seekers in Europe,” according to the press release.
However, Ms de Moor and her cabinet stress that these measures take time and will not bear fruit immediately.
