Around 200 people took part in a demonstration on Rue de la Loi to protest against the eviction of 140 asylum seekers living in a building on that street. The occupants have not been provided with an alternative solution.
The building is located on Rue de la Loi 91, next to the former headquarters of CD&V – the Belgian State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor's party. The inhabitants first entered the site in April together with activists from 'Stop the Reception Crisis' to denounce the lack of sheltered places provided by the Federal Government.
Despite previous court rulings in favour of the occupants, the Brussels Justice of the Peace ruled that the squatters had to leave the building by 31 August at the latest.
Amin, a young man from Afghanistan, applied for asylum in Belgium five months ago and has been living in the squatted building since. He estimates that there are more than 140 people in the building and that every day, new people join them because they too are denied shelter in the Fedasil network.
"We are sleeping on the ground, the situation is difficult because the building is much too small for so many people," he told The Brussels Times.
Credit: Lauren Walker/The Brussels Times
Now, the occupants have been told this is their last day here. “But if that is so then where do we go? They didn’t give us a place in the reception centres,” he said. "We cannot sleep outside because it is so cold so we can’t do that. Now we have to fight."
Never-ending battle
In recent months, courts have twice ordered that Fedasil take responsibility for the occupants and manage the building properly by bearing the costs of water and energy consumption. As with the other judgements, however, these have been ignored by the authorities.
After the large-scale police action in Brussels-Midi station, which NGOs have said included refugees being chased away, and de Moor's decision to temporarily deny single men access to shelters, the collective decided to "continue the occupation of the property until a police coercive eviction operation."
"2,000 people are still waiting for a space in the reception network, and they have lost all hope that the situation will improve," said Marie Doutrepont, a lawyer at Progressive Lawyers Network. She stressed that these people continue to occupy the building because the government has failed to create enough sheltered places. "They would rather leave people in misery than act."
Doutrepont underlined that the Belgian State has not done anything to find solutions and that all positive acts were done by organisations and associations.
Marie Doutrepont at the rally. Credit: Lauren Walker/The Brussels Times
"The solutions do exist, but they do not want to implement them. Placing five people per municipality as part of the distribution plan is possible, but there seems to be no will to do this, which I find shocking and unbelievable," she added. "So we have to keep mobilising ourselves and we have to keep saying that this is not okay."
The organisation will challenge the decision to evict the asylum seekers in court, but whether it will make any difference remains unclear, Doutrepont underlined.
One of the demonstration's organisers, Alexia, said that the question is what we want to be as a society. "Do we want to be a society where we care and help each other, or do we want to be one that leaves people aside? A society of dehumanisation?"
