LONDON: Amnesty International on Thursday condemned Belgium for denying asylum applications from thousands of people, “forcing them into homelessness.”
Amnesty accused the EU member of “discrimination against racialized single men,” which has “impacted the lives, dignity and human rights of people seeking asylum.”
It added: “To date, national and international courts have ordered the authorities in Belgium to provide reception more than 12,000 times.
“Belgium has consistently refused to fully comply with the judgments, despite these being final and legally binding.”
Amnesty interviewed people who have experienced homelessness while navigating Belgium’s asylum system since 2021. Many said as well as being denied accommodation, access to healthcare is a major problem.
Sayed, who traveled from Afghanistan, spent time in a squat in Brussels with other homeless migrants from October 2022 to 2023.
“In the beginning it was good enough, there were toilets and showers, and some people brought food in the afternoon,” he told Amnesty.
“But slowly it was turned completely into a graveyard. Showers and toilets were broken, with the passage of time … Pee was coming up to the place where you were sleeping.”
He said ordinary Belgians and local charities had been welcoming, but the state had not been. “People were feeling our pain, but not the authorities,” he added.
Palestinian refugees Ahmet and Baraa, who fled the war Gaza last year, were also forced to live in a squat.
“It was cold … You can be starving, and no one will know about it. No one will help you,” Ahmet said. “I lost a lot of relatives and friends (in Gaza). My mother is severely wounded, my brothers and sister as well. I was thinking in their shoes: I just need to survive.”
Baraa said he just wants a “simple life, basic rights, a job, food in (my) stomach and just to live like a normal person. We had a life back in Gaza, but we just lacked the security and the safety there and that is why we left. That is why we came here: to find a safe place.”
Amnesty said it fears that Belgium will continue to exacerbate the problem after its new government pledged to adopt “the strictest migration policy possible.”
Amnesty urged the government “to immediately provide sufficient reception places and ensure that all people seeking asylum are given adequate housing.
“They must ensure people have access to adequate healthcare services, including specialized psychological support, regardless of their housing situation.”
It also called on the EU to “ensure that Belgium restores compliance” with its legal obligations to asylum-seekers, “including by launching infringement procedures if necessary.”
Eva Davidova, spokeswoman for Amnesty International Belgium, said the country’s “failure to provide reception is not due to a lack of resources but a lack of political will.”
She added: “The previous government had ample time to resolve the homelessness situation and failed to do so.
“The current government is more concerned with reducing the number of people who receive asylum rather than addressing the very real harm inflicted on people seeking asylum currently in the country.
“The scale and duration of Belgium’s persistent disregard for court orders raises questions as to how rights holders can have any hope of holding the Belgian government accountable, especially marginalized and racialized persons like those affected by this situation.”
Davidova continued: “Belgium is actively manufacturing a homelessness crisis which is bound to have a lasting adverse impact on people’s lives and dignity, while civil society is left to pick up the pieces.
“Without urgent intervention, this crisis will deepen, further violating asylum-seekers’ rights and eroding both the country’s and the EU’s commitment to human rights.”
