[https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/02/22/nederlandse-rechter-weigert-asielzoeker-terug-naar-belgie-te-stu/](https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/02/22/nederlandse-rechter-weigert-asielzoeker-terug-naar-belgie-te-stu/)

A judge in the Netherlands refuses to return a Chinese asylum seeker to Belgium because he could receive inhumane treatment. The man applied for asylum in the Netherlands last summer, but was already in our country earlier. According to European rules, he should therefore actually apply for asylum here.

12 comments

  1. The Dutch judge is absolutely right and I can’t believe Belgium has let it come to this. Hundreds of people with perfectly valid asylum cases have fled conflict in their home countries and have had to camp out by the canal in Brussels for months now without even the opportunity to submit their claim. It’s disgraceful.

  2. If i see how many people life in horrible conditions around Brussel North on the street, i can’t blame them.

    It’s crazy how many i see, and some intrigue me. Like the BAsic fit sportbag guy that stands there all day long near the construction site close to the old KFC.

  3. > A judge in the Netherlands refuses to return a Chinese asylum seeker to Belgium because he could receive inhumane treatment

    Aha, so we know where we need to send our asylum seekers now. ^^^^/s

  4. It is evident that, when the government really wants it, they can solve incredible well the situation of asylum seekers.

    They took care of more than 70.000 Ukrainian refugees last year with a lot of excelent good measures like granting job permissions, hosting in families, etc…

    The question is why Belgium does not provide this extraordinary humanitarian treatment to refugees escaping from other wars like Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Ethiopia, Nigeria, etc…

  5. The risk is pretty much a guarantee.

    So why is nothing being done? Because you don’t win votes by fixing this. Every politician trying to improve the situation for refugees will lose votes. Every politician who tries to make the situation worse, will win votes.

    But imagine that there is a politician so powerful that they could fix it, and wouldn’t need to worry about losing votes. They could treat people humanely and not be punished for it. What would they need to do?

    Let’s think of a possible approach.

    Well first of all, we would need a fully vertical approach. Today a lot of services and levels of government actively sabotage each other. Look at the squatted building and the total chaos when clearing it. Local governments communicated wrong, police received contradicting orders, promises about placements were not kept, the procedures were ignored…

    Instead, the moment a person enters Belgium as a refugee, asylum seeker or illegal, they would need to fall under the responsibility of one agency that has both a mandate **and** the means to do what needs to be done.

    That means the person would have a right to “bed, bath, bread” and this right would actually be guaranteed. But it would come with the creation of a debt to society. A debt that can be paid back by working. Even those who receive asylum would need to contribute to society before they receive the same benefits as natives.

    Those who do not qualify would be given the option to study a profession that we don’t have enough people for, and then work in that field as a way to repay their debt to society and possibly get the right to stay.

    Those unwilling, or unable to do that and who do not have the right to stay, are shipped back to their safe country of origin.

    It’s a strict but humane approach that would let in those who are genuine asylum seekers and those valuable for our society, but have them pay for their integration in our society through work.

    Just one idea that could actually work. But that wouldn’t pass the voters.

  11. Meanwhile in the Netherlands Artsen zonder grenzen need to intervene in their camps for lack of aid

    Not saying the Belgians are doing any better but having the gall to point a finger at someone else while your shit is just as bad or even worse is mind boggling.

  12. I’m not VB, not even a Belgian lol. But during my time here, I’ve seen few cases where people who just want to stay here and are not genuinely persecuted claiming asylum and getting the protected status (they were not from like Syria or Afghanistan but Turkey, China, Lebanon, et al). Asylum is a sensitive topic but if anyone is risking death back home, I doubt they’d be concerned of “risk of more inhumane treatment” in Belgium.

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