Refugees are forced to sleep on the street in Belgium | Focus on Europe

[Applause] day breaking in the Belgian Capital 47-year-old Sri Lankan Robin Rodrigo has been sleeping rough for a few weeks now directly outside of Belgium's Asylum Office he's waiting for them to process his application I asked the room then he he told me right now we don't have room because too much people this country then he want to sleep for the floor I sleep the floor with nowhere to go he Waits here like dozens of others Robin watches as every morning at 8:30 a.m. the Brussels Asylum application Center opens for half an hour women Children and Families line up on the left single men on the right Belgium provides shelter for Refugee women and children they're taken away from here immediately but since October 2021 men arriving alone are not given housing sent back out with forms telling them to get on an already full waiting list it's volunteers who provide help every morning the guys have nothing to do nothing to eat nowhere to go but normally according to the Belgium law the Belgium authorities are compelled to give uh to give a shelter and to give food to these people and they decide not to comply with the law they don't care all the refugees can do is wait like nazra Tuller he was a soldier in the Afghan Army before the West pulled out he arrived in Belgium 3 months ago fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan my situation is really bad look at this I live in uh 3 month four month 5 month Liv in this uh attent uh the weather is really our situation is very bad after the Asylum Office closes at 9:00 a.m. people disperse for the day for Robin his strong Catholic faith brings him to Brussels Cathedral he prays to find a way through [Music] this he's not seen his wife and two young children in three years Robin says he had his possession stolen and that he no longer owns a passport I want to move to family then when I go Visa then I can take my two kids and my wife then I I like his St here I won't I like to help people but I don't have money but he still owns certificates he's received from jobs as a qualified heavyduty construction welder he worked in Iraq in 2005 and 2010 in Qatar and one year and a half in Romania according to the refugee charity fuckling AAC the average time it takes for an asylum request to be processed in Belgium is 440 days under EU law people have the right to shelter during that wait and fling of sees this as a European problem you see an overall race to the bottom in the whole of the European Union when it comes to the common uh Asylum system where every country thus a bit worse than the neighboring country because they want to be less attractive so in a way it is part of overall European policy to be the least attractive country out there Belgium has a housing waiting list for single men which they cut off at 2,700 names so there are at least that many sleeping rough many hundreds more are unable to even get their name on the list domestic Belgian courts have ruled 8,000 times against the government for not upholding the right to reception as did the European Court of Human Rights against Belgium over 1,700 times we received a written response from the office of the Belgian state Secretary in charge of Asylum according to it Belgium faced a 40% increase in Asylum requests in 2022 from 2021 and that with 34,500 places the Asylum reception Network in Belgium has never been so large quote nobody can say that there is a lack of will to support the homeless men a Charities have started occupying premises like this former office building in Brussels 350 men mainly from Burundi Sudan Eritrea and Yemen live here fabis dupi leads a 15 strong team and is having to reject around 20 new arrivals like this man every day today we have no no free place uh so I cannot put the people like this relatively new into this cycle of homelessness and waiting Robin is still convinced that his family's future is here in Europe this my son Kevin this my daughter duie is me and so he keeps waiting with more and more men sleeping in the passages outside Belgium's Asylum Office every day life's very tough here now and it's not even winter yet

Channel: DW News

Views: 189,042

Keywords: DW News

Id: qKJ2OdFlwHI

Length: 5min 34sec (334 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 14 2023