The labor court in Liege, Belgium, condemned the state and the Belgian Federal Asylum Seeker Reception Agency (Fedasil) for not showing an asylum seeker a place to stay and leaving him on the street without providing any social services.
The court decided that the state and Fedasil would jointly pay 2500 euros in compensation in the lawsuit filed on 8 February.
According to the information reflected in the Belgian press, the state and Fedasil were found guilty 8,600 times by various national courts in the refugee crisis that has been going on for more than a year in the country. The Belgian state and the relevant institution, which must pay a total fine of 168 million euros, refuse to pay.
For this reason, even a lien on Fedasil’s furniture came.
Refugee crisis
In Belgium, there has been a crisis for more than a year regarding the lack of shelter for asylum seekers.
The state does not fulfill its obligation, citing the capacity of the refugee reception centers to be full.
Volunteer lawyers win thousands of cases against Fedasil and the state in Brussels courts. Lawyers take the cases of asylum seekers to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after court orders are not respected.
The ECHR has taken a precautionary measure against Belgium for not providing shelter to hundreds of asylum seekers 5 times so far, but asylum seekers seeking international protection continue to sleep on the streets.
Fedasil has around 2,700 people on its waiting list. Most of these people sleep on the streets of Brussels. Local and international NGOs point out that Belgium has deliberately followed this policy so that it does not become attractive to immigrants.
Finally, on 29 March, Amnesty International stated that the relevant authorities in the country allowed the crisis to prolong, and drew attention to the neglect and irresponsibility of the state, completely violating its obligations, disregarding thousands of court decisions and the rule of law, leaving hundreds of asylum seekers, including children, on the street. .