Mayor of Anderlecht Fabrice Cumps (PS) says that asylum reception agency Fedasil has made a "criminal decision" by housing asylum seekers in a hotel without informing the municipality.
The Aviation Hotel in Anderlecht has been housing asylum seekers since 15 May but the municipality was never informed, Dutch-speaking media revealed on Thursday.
Part of the establishment was set aside for this reason when contracts with six other hotels across Brussels were renewed. A memo from outgoing State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor (CD&V) and Home Affairs Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V) reportedly did not disclose that the seventh was a new contract.
Anderlecht Mayor Fabrice Cumps stated on Thursday that this was a "criminal decision". "Anderlecht is doing its part," he said. "We already have three Fedasil reception centres on our territory. But to add a hotel with 180 people without telling us is a real scandal."
Not illegal
However, Jean-François Gérard – a lawyer at the Brussels Bar Association – says the decision to house asylum seekers at the Aviation Hotel is not illegal, contrary to Cumps' statements.
"Legally speaking, it is a private agreement between a hotel owner and Fedasil, a federal agency. And Red Cross is managing the place," he told The Brussels Times. "It's a shame they didn't inform the commune but it is a federal issue, not a local one."
"If all communes across Belgium played their part there would be no reception crisis," he said. Earlier this month, Cumps and Saint-Gilles Mayor Jean Spinette (PS) repeated calls for a national redistribution plan.
Gérard added that Fedasil reassured lawyers working with migrants that the decision to use hotels in this way was a temporary solution when it was announced in May – the month with the highest number of asylum applications in 15 years. However, displaced families are still living there months later.
"The real scandal is that families are being left on their own in these hotels for months, rather than for a couple of weeks."
'There was no other option'
De Moor has defended Fedasil's decision to use the hotel as a place to house asylum seekers. "In addition to emergency shelters in the Brussels-Capital Region, Fedasil has continued to look for solutions," she stated.
"Aviation works within the financial framework but the location was only used because there was no other option. It concerns emergency shelter for families and vulnerable women."
