Belgium’s decision to no longer accept single male asylum seekers could have major consequences for the Netherlands. Our country does not return migrants within the EU to countries where there is no humane reception. This year, the Netherlands has already asked Belgium to take back 210 asylum seekers.
The Belgian decision may result in more men ending up on the street because they are no longer able to get a place to sleep inside. Immigration lawyer Flip Schüller, who specializes in international proceedings, advocates a ‘categorical ban’ on deportations to that country because of Belgian policy. “Actually, the Dutch Secretary of State cannot do otherwise, if his Belgian colleague himself says that they do not offer shelter in that country.”
For the same reason, the Netherlands has not been sending refugees back to Italy, Greece, Hungary and Malta for months. There, too, the reception for asylum seekers is not guaranteed or the asylum procedure is far below standard. Will Belgium also be included in that list?
Four lawsuits
The Council of State confirms that in October four appeals will be heard before the administrative court in which asylum seekers ask not to be deported to Belgium, partly because the reception there is not sufficient. They are cases of two men from Angola and Pakistan and two women from China and Somalia. Their lawyers now have an argument. In June, the court in The Hague also ruled that a man from Angola could not be sent to Belgium because it was unclear whether shelter would be available.
Every year, the Netherlands tells about three thousand asylum seekers that they must return to the country where they were first registered and that their asylum application must be processed according to the so-called ‘Dublin rules’. This year, the Netherlands has already established 210 times that an asylum seeker must return to Belgium to go through his or her procedure. In the whole of 2022, that was 230 times. Belgium indicated in 160 cases that it agreed with this decision.
The Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security was not yet able to respond to the Belgian decision on Wednesday. The Belgian variant of the COA, Fedasil, has now been ordered by the Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum, Nicole de Moor, to no longer admit single men to the shelter. Applying for asylum is still allowed, but where they sleep and stay, they have to see for themselves. All beds are reserved for families. “I absolutely want to avoid children ending up on the street,” said De Moor on Wednesday evening.
The decision goes against Belgian law and could therefore lead to more men ending up on the street. The latter is already a problem because in practice in Belgium women and children are already given priority. The men were only allowed in if space was available. Now that is no longer allowed.
The Secretary of State has coverage from six of the seven government parties, only not from the Greens. “I deeply regret this,” said Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter (Groen). “What was decided today by State Secretary De Moor amounts to formalizing a policy for which our country has been condemned countless times.”
It is serious that a government does not comply with the laws and treaties, but if the government has also been convicted thousands of times for this, then the rule of law is in serious danger
Kati Verstrepen, Human Rights League
In almost 8,000 individual cases, Belgian courts have imposed fines on the government for failing to fulfill its statutory duty to provide shelter for asylum seekers while their procedure is ongoing. Last February, a bailiff even visited the office of the State Secretary. He confiscated a coffee machine and chairs, but De Moor refuses to pay the fines.
“It is serious that a government does not comply with the laws and treaties,” says Kati Verstrepen, the president of the League for Human Rights. “But if the government has also been convicted thousands of times for this, with penalty payments, and then still does not do what the law prescribes, then that is a particularly important signal to me that the rule of law is in serious danger, and with it our democracy.”
Whether more asylum seekers will come to the Netherlands as a result of the Belgian decision is still the question. There has been a shortage of reception places in Belgium for months, but as far as we know, this has not led to a shift to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, shelters have also been overcrowded for more than a year. Refugees also often choose to apply for asylum in a country where they already have family or whose language they speak. In 2022, for example, nearly 2800 people from Burundi, a former Belgian colony, applied for asylum in Belgium. In the Netherlands there were 16.
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