Belgium – UNHCR welcomes pledge to increase reception places, urges swift implementation and encourages perseverance in finding solutions

 
Brussels, 09 March 2023
 
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, welcomes today’s announcement by the Belgian Federal Government to create and make available more much needed reception places. UNHCR is clear that access to sufficient and adequate reception conditions is a fundamental part of fair and effective asylum procedures and crucial to ensuring international protection for people fleeing war, conflict and persecution.

While UNHCR acknowledges the difficult context in which Belgian reception actors have been working, the situation is manageable through collective and coordinated action by all actors at federal, regional and municipal levels. The speed and way in which Belgium provided shelter for more than 65,000 refugees from Ukraine shows the country’s capacity for an organized and workable approach to asylum.

It will be important that the new places announced today are swiftly made available. UNHCR also encourages all actors involved to persevere in their search for solutions to ensure that access to safe and dignified reception conditions is soon guaranteed for all asylum-seekers. This will also help to alleviate the pressure on those administrations and civil society actors that have been working tirelessly to support asylum-seekers throughout the ongoing reception crisis.

Today, the Government also reiterated that a ban on detention for children will be enshrined in Belgian law, which we very much welcome. UNHCR has always been clear that children should never be detained, and adults only if necessary, as a last resort for a short, defined period.

UNHCR welcomes the move towards providing residency rights for parents accompanying their children who are recognized refugees in Belgium, also announced today. Families belong together and family unity and family life are fundamental human rights. We continue to call for fast, flexible and efficient procedures to reunite families.

Regarding the announcements on statelessness and on returns, UNHCR is calling for residence permits to be granted in principle to stateless persons recognized in Belgium. While dignified returns for people wishing to go back to their countries of origin or who are found not to be in need of international protection are needed for a credible and functioning protection system, UNHCR also recalls the need for alternative, safe and dignified solutions for people who cannot return home after their asylum claim has been rejected.

UNHCR will further analyse the draft legislation and measures announced today on reception, detention, family reunification, statelessness and returns, when made available. UNHCR remains ready to support the Belgian authorities at all levels to better protect refugees, asylum-seekers and stateless people.

For further information, please contact:

• Maeve Patterson, [email protected], +32 470 995 435