Last year, a reception place was not immediately available for more than 8,800 people who applied for asylum in our country. “The single men are left to fend for themselves.”
“I’m not afraid of anything anymore, not the Sahara, not the Mediterranean. I buried three of my friends on the way to Belgium. I’ve slept next to dead bodies. And yet, now I’m afraid of the snow.” Eritrean Binyam told De Standaard at the beginning of December. He was one of the many single men who applied for asylum in our country, but then had to sleep on the street for a while because the shelter was full. There were a total of 8,816 in 2023, new figures from Fedasil show. In relation to the number of asylum applications that Belgium received (35,500), this was approximately a quarter.
The asylum reception crisis continues for the third year in a row. Fedasil’s reception network may have grown by 3,400 places, to a total of more than 35,000, but it turned out to be far from sufficient to give every asylum seeker the reception he is entitled to according to international treaties. By way of explanation, Fedasil points to the “extension of the duration of the asylum procedure”, which means that people have to spend longer in a reception center. According to Fedasil, the inflow is also consistently higher than the outflow.
Disenfranchised
The asylum seekers who end up on the streets are almost exclusively single men. This is the result of the decision last summer by State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole De Moor (CD&V) to give women, children, families and vulnerable profiles priority in asylum reception. Because it is so tight, in practice today almost every single man ends up on the street for at least a few days. Although she understands the priorities, “it is not logical that single men are left to their fate, as if they are without rights and do not deserve shelter,” Ina Vandenberghe, deputy director of the Myria migration center, told VRT.
