Reception crisis: structural solutions are necessary, particularly for youth

The Belgian reception system is in crisis. Besides short-term, emergency solutions, structural measures are necessary to resolve it. ©Viktor Toader/Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen

07/11/2022

For more than a year, the Belgian reception system for applicants for international protection has been dysfunctional. The situation continues to deteriorate despite numerous condemnations of Fedasil and the Belgian state, countless appeals from people seeking protection, and cries of alarm from the legal community and humanitarian organizations. Improving the situation short-term is unlikely. Caritas International and other civil society organizations call on the government not only to provide emergency solutions, but also to take structural measures to improve the system.

These past months, it has become “normal” for migrants to spend the night outside due to the lack of available reception centers. What used to be mostly single men, now also effects families with children and unaccompanied minors (UAM). Some are sleeping in cardboard tents. The formal and informal emergency housing structures in Brussels and the surrounding area are saturated. People who are active in the international protection and migration sectors feel like they are engaged in a war of attrition.

Too often, the government offer “too little too late.” They are addressing matters after the fact. We need concrete and immediate actions and a clear political will to develop long-term solutions.

Laurence Bruyneel, coordinator for the guardian services at Caritas International

THE “NEW NORMAL”?

Civil society cannot accept that adults and children are forced to live on the street because of the lack of housing options. This should not become the “new normal.”

Last October, the federal government decided to open new emergency reception structures in Jabbeke (East Flanders) and Glons (Liège). This is a positive step, but it will take a long time to set up, organize, and find qualified personnel.

Laurence Bruyneel, from Caritas International, says, “Too often, the government offers “too little too late.” They are addressing matters after the fact. We need concrete and immediate actions and a clear political will to develop long-term solutions.”

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ACCURATELY INFORM YOUTH

Caritas International does not have the necessary resources to organize a shelter itself. However, the team at Caritas is active in the field. “Our colleagues at the Xtra-MENA Project* are following the situation closely,” explains Laurence Bruyneel. “Every day, we are in contact with a dozen youth who have been refused for reception. We try to better inform them of their rights and the reasons why their age might have been in doubt. We direct them to the Hub, where they can receive a cardboard tent to spend the night.”

ROADMAP WITH SOLUTIONS

Caritas International is convinced that, along with emergency measures, a structural approach is necessary to resolve the reception crisis and ensure that this inhumane situation in not repeated year after year. With this in mind, we have developed a roadmap with other civil society organizations (FR). We propose a series of solutions, which we have submitted to the government for its consideration. This roadmap includes, among others, proposals concerning the reception of unaccompanied minors (UAMs), namely:

Provide a guardian, when possible, particularly in vulnerable situations that need to be resolved immediately;
Give authority about raising doubt about age solely to the guardianship service, whose delegates must be separate from the Foreigners Office for this specific task. Currently, the age of young people is almost systematically questioned, even if they are under 15-years-old;
Dissociate the right to reception from the results of an age test. Any person applying for international protection has the right to immediate reception, regardless of their age;
Facilitate access to the reception procedure by using less strict criteria to access it.