“This is certainly the issue that makes me feel sick to my stomach the most as a citizen and as an activist”confesses Georges Gilkinet, who is asked if being part of a government that lets refugees sleep in the streets is not too out of step with his convictions.
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“This is undoubtedly one of the files on which we intervene most often at government level. At the same time, we have never invested so much in the reception of asylum candidates, at the same time we have never never created so many places for asylum seekers, and at the same time it is not acceptable that we do not meet our international obligations and that we do not uphold the rule of law in terms of reception. I’m trying to turn my anger into political action. In terms of results, we’re not there, that’s for sure. Letting people who are entitled to asylum sleep outside is not acceptable. is something that I say to the journalist from L’Avenir who is in front of me but that I also say at the government table, eye to eye, to the Secretary of State in charge of asylum policy.
“This is clearly one of the most complicated issues for ecologists, along with the energy issue. But we are not sitting idly by. This is one of the elements on which things must change the most between now and end of the legislature, as soon as possible. Belgium pleads at European level for each state to assume its share of responsibility, let us apply the same logic here in Belgium with a distribution plan as we have done in other times, to that these asylum seekers can be received locally. There are people who have been in reception centers for a year, two years, who might live independently to make room in the centers for people who have just arrived in Belgium. There are solutions. They are not obvious, but they are possible.”
+ Discover the full interview with Georges Gilkinet in L’Avenir this Saturday, on Tablet , smartphone ou PC and on lavenir.net
