Belgium will pay compensation to asylum seeker

In Belgium, the labor court ordered the State and the Belgian Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (Fedasil) to pay 2,500 euros in compensation for non-material damage caused to an asylum seeker for more than a year.

The labor court of the city of Liège condemned the state and Fedasil for not showing an asylum seeker a place to stay and leaving him on the street without providing him with any social services. The court decided that the State and Fedasil would jointly pay 2,500 euros in compensation in the lawsuit filed on February 8.

According to information reflected in the Belgian press, the State and Fedasil were found guilty 8,600 times by various national courts in the refugee crisis that has been going on for more than a year in the country. The Belgian state and the relevant institution, which must pay a total of 168 million euros in fines, refuse to pay.

For this reason, it even reached a lien on Fedasil’s furniture.

THE CRISIS HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED TO THE ECHR

In Belgium there has been a crisis for more than a year due to the lack of accommodation for asylum seekers. The state does not comply with its obligation, claiming that the capacity of the refugee reception centers is full.

Volunteer lawyers 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 ECHR has taken an injunction against Belgium for not hosting hundreds of asylum seekers 5 times so far, but asylum seekers seeking international protection continue to sleep on the streets.

Fedasil has around 2,700 people on the waiting list. Most of these people sleep on the streets of Brussels. Local and international NGOs point out that Belgium has deliberately pursued this policy to make it unattractive to immigrants.

Finally, on March 29, Amnesty International affirmed that the country’s competent authorities allowed the crisis to drag on and called attention to the negligence and irresponsibility of the State, completely violating its obligations, ignoring thousands of judicial decisions and the rule of law. leaving hundreds of asylum seekers, including children, on the streets. (AA)