‘I don’t have anything.’ The plight of asylum-seekers left in the dark

By Euronews Brussels bureau

“We don’t have a house, we live on the street. We don’t have work. We don’t have money. We don’t have clothes, shoes, food.”

These are the words of Abd al-Wahid, a young Afghan man who has spent the last three months living in makeshift tents along the Brussels Canal, not far from some of the city’s most visited tourist attractions. He is one of over 250 asylum-seekers who have set up camp right outside the reception centre known as Le Petit Chateau – in English, The Little Castle –, where they endure the harsh conditions of the freezing winter.

“I can’t shower. It’s just a problem,” Abd al-Wahid says.

His story illustrates the conundrum of Belgium’s migration system, which according to national authorities is overburdened by a steady rise in asylum applications, leaving migrants in the dark about their future.

The country has created 9,000 reception places since September 2021, for a total of 34,000 rooms that are believed to be at maximum capacity. The inability to provide decent conditions to all those who arrive in search of humanitarian reception has resulted in scenes of despair and destitution as those recorded by a Euronews team at the Brussels Canal.

“It’s very hard because I don’t have anything. I don’t have a house. I don’t have money. I don’t have work,” Mohammed, a 30-year-old man from Somalia, told our colleague Christopher Pitchers.

After traversing Africa to get to Libya, Mohammed made the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean in a small boat with his family. He is now stuck in a no man’s land, having waited for six months to begin a new life somewhere in Belgium.

“Money is really important. When you work it is better. I don’t know how I can go to work when I don’t have a house,” he said.

The office of Belgium’s Immigration Minister Nicole de Moor insists there is “certainly political will to provide shelter” and that priority is always given to families and unaccompanied minors.

“We should not expect an immediate trend reversal in terms of the numbers of asylum seekers. Without structural reforms, our asylum system cannot withstand a large influx of people seeking protection,” a spokesperson from the ministry said.

A total of 36,871 people applied for international protection in Belgium last year, a 40% increase compared to 2021. This means the country received an average of 3,000 requests per month. Afghanistan, Syria, Palestine, Burundi and Eritrea were the main countries of origin.

With public authorities overwhelmed, NGOs have stepped up their assistance operations on the ground. The associations, who are equally under-resourced, believe they have been forced to complete the task left unattended by the government.

“There is currently no political will to find a solution to this problem,” Dr Jean-Paul Mangion, a medical coordinator at the Belgian mission of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told Christopher.

“It’s not simple and it’s not an easy problem to solve because even if you created new places (for accommodation), they would quickly get filled up by the new incoming persons. There are a number of bottlenecks within the asylum system, which need to be taken care of.”

But this story is not unique to Belgium: almost eight years after the migration crisis, the European Union still lacks a unified migration policy that can provide an effective response to the question of reception and relocation. The legal fragmentation leaves member states to fend for themselves, even when their goals become incompatible with each other.

“I believe it's a good country,” Abd al-Wahid says about Belgium. “But we have a big problem. We don’t have a place to live.”

The day after Euronews filmed the camp along the Brussels Canal, local authorities announced an emergency plan of relocation and cleaning trucks were driven to the scene to dismantle the makeshift tents.