Eight associations have lodged an urgent appeal with the Council of State against the decision to temporarily stop offering accommodation to single male asylum seekers, taken by State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor.
Last week, de Moor (CD&V/EPP) announced the Federal Asylum Seeker Reception Agency (Fedasil) would no longer accept single male asylum seekers to “anticipate the growing influx of families and children, and above all avoid children ending up on the streets in winter”.
This announcement sparked anger among associations, some even taking legal action against the decision, fearing the worst, especially for the upcoming winter.
“This measure is illegal in several respects,” immigration lawyer Jean-Marc Picard said in a statement on Wednesday, Belga reported. “The State Secretary undoubtedly knows this too,” he added. According to him, the case is due to be heard next week.
De Moor’s decision received low support from the Belgian political landscape, especially from the Socialist and Green opposition.
It is “a lamentable decision” that the Walloon Green Party (Ecolo) finds “totally unacceptable”, the party’s co-president Rajae Maouane notably told LN24 on Wednesday t
Maouane also recalled the numerous condemnations the Belgian State faced for handling the crisis and for not respecting fundamental rights.
De Moor’s decision has also raised eyebrows at the EU level, with the Commission saying it would question Belgium about the announcement.
To house the male asylum seekers, the State Secretary relies on local reception initiatives, something for which it received criticism from far-right Flemish party Vlaams Belang, with its president, Tom Van Grieken, saying: “We don’t need more reception places, but fewer asylum seekers.”
In an op-ed published in De Standaard on Thursday, de Moor defended her decision and exposed her views on solutions to the crisis.
She wrote that “the flow of people who are not fleeing violence or persecution needs to be slowed down if we are to regain more control and offer protection to those who are really fleeing persecution,” adding that the EU migration pact was “a crucial step in this direction.”
The State Secretary already said the EU migration pact would be crucial to ease the migration crisis in Belgium over the long term.
She also said that more agreements with countries like the one with Tunisia are needed, emphasising the need to tackle the causes of migration so that people no longer risk “dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean”, which could be achieved by investing in education and employment and tackling smuggling networks, she added.
For her, only cooperation with North African countries “across all policy areas and in the long term” can reduce the flow of refugees.
“The reality is that only by working with these countries can we regain control of migration flows and our policies.”
De Moor also mentioned the aspects she would focus on during Belgium’s EU presidency starting in January. This includes not outsourcing EU policy to foreign subcontractors but for the EU to launch a “controlled migration policy”.
(Nina Chabot & Anne-Sophie Gayet | EURACTIV.com)
Read more with EURACTIV
France to launch rail pass similar to GermanyFrance will introduce a rail pass similar to the one recently introduced in neighbouring Germany, French Transport Minister Clément Beaune announced on Thursday, in a bid to encourage the French to use trains, which are often bemoaned as an expensive way to travel.
Source: euractiv.com
