Children and their mothers have slept in recent nights in front of the Jules Bordet Institute, transformed into a reception and registration center for Ukrainian exiles. In the regional governments, we are talking regarding tens of thousands of refugees who we do not know where to place while the administrations are already weakened by the Covid. Obviously, all the competent structures are overwhelmed. A situation that exasperates to the highest peak of the state. On Thursday, the Prime Minister, the Minister of the Interior, the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration and the Minister-Presidents met to try to find a structural solution to this massive influx of refugees. Asked regarding this in the House, Secretary of State Sammy Mahdi (CD&V) replied that tens of thousands of reception places will be created by the end of the month. In Brussels, the automatic recognition and registration of refugees will be increased. “People have to be able to be welcomed as they should be. It will be necessary to decentralize everywhere in the country. I don’t want to look in this institutional lasagna to see who should do what. Everyone must do their part.”
While waiting for new centers, including that of Heysel, to open their doors, the Bordet center remains overwhelmed. Understaffed, the Immigration Office is unable to register all applications. Fedasil manages to redirect some refugees to housing, but shows a certain impotence due to a lack of means. Note that this blockage is also the result of confusion and poor communication. “It is not necessary for people who already have a reception to go to Bordet. They have the right to be in Belgium for 90 days”, shouts the Mahdi cabinet, which affirms that only 30% of the people present in the lines would not have housing. Only exiles who do not know anyone in Belgium and who need a roof must present themselves at the Brussels registration center in order to receive accommodation.
More than 4 million Ukrainians are expected to flee their country, according to forecasts. Thousands of them will arrive in Belgium. The #PlaceLibre operation was the first step to create temporary reception places. Now, the Regions are urgently looking for solutions in agreement with the federal government, which declares through its Secretary of State: “Alone, we will not succeed”.
