A dozen Brussels residents slept in tents on the city's streets for one night last week in solidarity with the hundreds of asylum seekers who are forced to sleep rough every night as a result of the government's failure to provide them with shelter.
The tents pitched on the bridge near the Petit Château (the arrival centre managed by the government reception agency Fedasil) are sadly no new sight. However, this weekend the situation differed slightly, with some of the tents occupied by Brussels residents.
Belgium’s reception crisis started around October 2021. Droves of asylum seekers, mostly single men, were not given the shelter that they are legally entitled to when applying for protection in Belgium.
The crisis first became visible around Petit Château, where long lines of beds were stationed outside the building's gates, but the evidence of the government's failure has since spread across the city.
However, it was back at Petit Château where, when the asylum reception crisis in the country reached a new low in autumn last year, Molenbeek residents organised themselves to help their "neighbours on the bridge" by bringing them food, warmth, clothes, medicine or legal assistance.
Increased visibility
Now, one year and more than 6,000 convictions later, several locals as well as concerned citizens came together for a solidarity action and spent the night on the streets alongside asylum seekers who sleep rough every night.
The initiative is in line with asylum seekers' efforts to remain visible. When the mercury started to drop, the municipality of Molenbeek offered to house the refugees in a municipal hall, however, they refused, explaining that they wanted to remain visible, especially on the bridge, to continue putting pressure on politicians.
The overnight action was followed by a demonstration towards the Grand Hospice and a solidarity brunch on Sunday. The residents have also organised a vigil almost every Sunday evening for the asylum seekers, but the situation remains unchanged.
"That's why we are once again raising the alarm loud and clear," one participant said.
"t is heartwarming to see how concerned citizens continue to show solidarity with people without shelter. For us, this clearly shows that there is indeed solidarity with people on the run and that there is support," Thomas Willekens, a Policy Officer at Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen, told The Brussels Times.
"This entire reception crisis, we have seen volunteer groups and individual citizens fill in the gaps and help where possible," he added.
Criticising government's approach
However, Willekens stressed that it is still the Federal Government's responsibility to provide shelter for all asylum seekers. "The fact that people have been sleeping in tents at the Petit Château for months is distressing." This is made only worse by the fact that Belgium has already been convicted many times for not providing shelter.
"These convictions are simply ignored, which is unworthy of a rule of law," he added. "The solutions to this reception crisis exist. It is not that we suddenly find ourselves with an unsolvable crisis. It is a matter of political choices not to open emergency accommodation in hotels, not to apply the mandatory dispersal plan, and there are countless other examples."
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With their actions, locals too wanted to openly criticise the government and specifically the State Secretary for Migration Nicole de Moor's approach to the crisis.
"As neighbours, we want to show that we fundamentally disagree with the migration politics in Belgium and the human suffering it causes. It is inhumane. It is illegal. It is based on lies. It is illiberal. It is, thus, morally, legally, socially, and politically reprehensible," one participant, Simon Truwant, said.
In response to this criticism, de Moor's spokesperson Bart Tierens told The Brussels Times that emergency accommodation (1,200 places) is provided for registered asylum seekers who are waiting for a place in the Fedasil reception network to be freed up as a result of a convention with the Brussels region in December last year.
"Asylum seekers staying in tents at Petit Château can rely on this shelter. Samusocial and the Croix Rouge raise awareness about the existence of this emergency shelter," he noted, adding that the government continues to work with Fedasil to expand the shelter network. "There are currently 33,884 reception places. That is the largest shelter network ever."
