A press conference takes place at 10 a.m.
“Migration agreement completed! An important step towards a controlled and fair migration policy”, launched the Secretary of State for Asylum, Nicole de Moor, on Twitter. “With this first package of measures, we are taking the path of reform. Reception places will only go to those who are in an asylum procedure, cooperation on return will be enshrined in law, abuses will be addressed and vulnerable people are protected,” she added in a statement.
A mandate has been given to Ms. de Moor to create 2,000 additional structural places in addition to the 8,000 already activated in recent months. Some 2,000 places will also be released. These new squares must avoid situations like those recently experienced in rue des Palais and in front of the Petit Château in Brussels.
Different measures are mentioned, such as the increase in subsidies and the improvement of Local Reception Initiatives (ILA), the exit of 1,500 people on “long stay” from the reception network, the creation of a village of units housing (i.e. “containers” that can accommodate around 700 people) with the help of European credits and the extension of the agreement with the Brussels Region, indicated a government source.
Reception crisis: only 71 refugees were able to be resettled in Belgium in 2022
The system will be subject to regular evaluation, with “the objective that all applicants can see their right to reception respected before winter 23-24”, specified this same source.
Measures also target the asylum procedure. A negative decision will henceforth directly mean the end of reception within 30 days and will limit the impact that the accumulation of legal remedies may currently have on the saturation of the centres. Currently, some 1,000 people are affected. A better follow-up of returns will be carried out via the introduction of a “duty of cooperation” with the coaches provided for this purpose. Failure to comply with this obligation may be sanctioned by the more rapid implementation of a forced return procedure. To speed up forced expulsions, the “pool” of escorts will be extended so that this operation can be carried out by staff from the Immigration Office in addition to the police and Frontex staff. The Dublin Directive will be applied more strictly to encourage the return of an applicant to the Member State through which he arrived in the EU.
“It’s not a crisis of reception but of political will”: associations besiege ministerial cabinets with the “Winter Miseries”
Several measures will be taken with regard to family reunification, including, for example, a procedure to assess the effective care of children. Family reunification with Belgian children will be possible for the parent who actually takes care of the child on a daily basis. It will therefore no longer be enough to be the parent of the child, in order to fight against the phenomenon of “paper babies”.
Alongside the reception measures, four texts were adopted at first reading. They provide for a new right of residence for stateless persons (initially for 5 years and possibly unlimited thereafter) and rights to family reunification similar to those of refugees, a new right of residence for the parents of children recognized as refugees (for example of girls at risk of genital mutilation), the improvement of the protection of migrant women who are victims of domestic violence (protection against loss of stay), the inclusion in law of the public nature of the reports of the expulsion control body forced and finally, to cement an achievement of the government agreement, the inclusion in the law of the prohibition of the confinement of children in closed centres.
No regularization of asylum seekers is provided for in the agreement. This question had aroused great tension within Vivaldi during the summer of 2021.
The reception crisis has earned the Belgian State several thousand court convictions accompanied by penalty payments. In the majority, Ecolo welcomed the new measures. “After the relocation of the occupants of the tent village opposite the Petit Château, we finally have clear prospects for the restoration of the rule of law. We will ensure that they are actually implemented”, underlined the vice-president. Prime Minister Georges Gilkinet. “And we are delighted with the other progress made in terms of the protection of asylum seekers, in particular women victims of domestic violence or genital mutilation, stateless persons and children. We do not lock up a child. This will now be registered in the law”.