Migrant support organizations denounced today in La Libre the “electoral masquerade” concerning Brussels’ Gare du Nord, a week after the Minister of Asylum and Migration Maggie De Block (Open VLD, Flemish Liberal Democrats) reported finding a solution concerning migrants who occupied the premises.
The minister might have boasted about emptying the station, but it was thanks to the Red Cross, Samusocial and citizen platform support to refugees who managed to find 140 places, according to La Libre.
“We were used by the federal government, which can boast and make voters believe that the situation near the station is under control. If you go there, you will see that this is not the case,” denounced anonymously an associative sector worker.
De Block said that any migrants returning to the station would be arrested by police and placed in a closed detention centre for expulsion. On site, this procedure does not seem to be respected.
The police, however, have to empty the nearby Maximilien Park every day and several times every night. The migrants have moved partially to other parks.
La Libre also wondered about migrants being welcomed in the Neder-over-Heembeek Fedasil Centre. They receive assistance, even though they give no guarantee that they choose to submit an application for asylum. This initiative is approved, however, by the volunteers, who make the parallel with a welcome and orientation centre, which is refused by the federal.
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