The refugee crisis in Belgium grows: Letters sent to the ports

According to local media, Moro is looking for an alternative solution in the country, where there is an admission crisis for asylum seekers, since accommodation has not been shown for a long time.

De Mooor sent letters to the ports of Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, and Ostend for this purpose.

The letter said that the Belgian Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (Fedasil) has contacts with several shipping companies to hold ships or barges at short notice, but it seems difficult to find a suitable location.

Currently, around 200 asylum seekers have been staying in such a floating complex in the port of the city of Ghent since 2000.

The ships, which are the subject of De Moor’s proposed solution, are more like a village of floating containers.

THE REFUGEE CRISIS WAS EXPERIENCED

In Belgium there has been a crisis for more than a year due to the lack of accommodation for asylum seekers and health services.

Fedasil argues that there are close to 3,000 people on the waiting list, that the admission process is progressing slowly as its capacity is full, and that it cannot serve asylum seekers.

Some of the refugees who could not be admitted to the Fedasil reception centers sleep on the streets, while others live in abandoned buildings.

NGOs win thousands of cases against Fedasil and the State in the courts of Brussels. Lawyers take asylum seekers’ cases to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) after court orders are not respected. The ECtHR has taken an injunction against Belgium for failing to provide refuge to asylum seekers 5 times so far. (AA)