Tuesday, as soon as Ms. de Moor (CD&V) announced, the Deputy Prime Ecolo, Georges Gilkinet, also described the decision as “extremely problematic”.
The Secretary of State for Asylum justified the measure by the growing influx of families with children and the need to reserve a number of places for them in the reception network managed by Fedasil in order to prevent them from find themselves on the streets this winter.
In practice, families with children already receive priority. Single men are placed on waiting lists – according to Ms. de Moor, their number is now around 2,000 – and every day a certain number of them are given a place.
“I want to be honest: this we will no longer be able to do. This means that they will have to wait a very long time because during the period that opens we will no longer be able to offer places to single men at Fedasil. It is a decision that I don’t want to take but that I have to take”, she declared on the airwaves of Radio 1 (VRT).
In the Brussels Region, at a time when the federal government, the Region and the municipalities are trying to solve the problems that arise at the Gare du Midi, the announcement has gone badly. Ministers Alain Maron (Ecolo) and Bernard Clerfayt (DéFI) have already expressed their strong disapproval. Minister-President Rudi Vervoort (PS) expressed his concern. “This worrying decision by the Secretary of State risks causing a new influx of wandering public in the Brussels Region. We expect a solution from the federal government as soon as possible”, he declared on X.
