Amnesty International has urgently called on the Belgian Government to resolve the reception crisis for asylum seekers, which it argued is self-inflicted, in a new statement published on Tuesday.
"Ever since October 2021, the Belgian government has been systematically violating the rights of people seeking asylum and showing contempt for the rule of law by ignoring thousands of court rulings," the human rights organisation denounced.
That omission, according to Amnesty International, has resulted in people seeking international protection from conflict, persecution and human rights violations, including children, being denied any reception and being left destitute for more than two years.
Asylum seekers' shelter near the Immigration Services building. Credit: Lauren Walker
"Today, about 2,600 people are thus still waiting for reception by the Belgian state. Many of them are forced to sleep on the streets or live in makeshift tents in appalling conditions," said Wies De Graeve, director of Amnesty International Flanders.
'Predictable and manageable'
The organisation strongly condemns Belgium for not having given "significant follow-up" to "over 8,000 court rulings" by the Council of State and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), among others, regarding this crisis.
Most recently, the Council of State suspended the implementation of the decision by the State Secretary for Asylum and Migration, Nicole de Moor, to no longer offer shelter to single male asylum seekers, however, this ruling was ignored and has not been implemented.
"By failing to take significant action on the rulings, the government has shown a shocking disregard not only for the rights of asylum seekers but also for the rule of law," said De Graeve.
An asylum seeker been registered at the Helpdesk. Credit: The Brussels Times / Lauren Walker
De Moor has announced several measures to increase the country's reception capacity in the past months – efforts recognised by Amnesty International – but the organisation stressed that these are "slow and still inadequate".
Civil society has proposed viable solutions and recommendations to ensure that all those entitled to shelter have access to it, such as activating the dispersal plan provided for in national law that would see every municipality having to provide shelter to a certain number of people.
But, Amnesty International argued, there is a "lack of political will to address the predictable and manageable problem, leading to the current self-inflicted reception crisis", adding that the cost of human rights "continues to rise".
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In the statement, it called for urgent investment in the reception system by activating this plan and working on sustainable solutions to deal with fluctuations in the number of people seeking protection in Belgium.
However, it is not the first to call on Belgium to act rapidly, raising questions of whether this call will once again fall on deaf ears. De Moor, meanwhile, continues to look outside the country's borders to the controversial EU Migration Pact as a solution to all problems.
