[https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/02/27/hoe-zijn-we-in-een-opvangcrisis-beland/](https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/02/27/hoe-zijn-we-in-een-opvangcrisis-beland/)
Some 63,400 Ukrainian refugees arrived in Belgium last year. They immediately received protection through the status of temporarily displaced persons, so they do not have to go through the regular asylum procedure. The regions are responsible for their accommodation. Unlike an asylum seeker, they can also ask for a living wage. The vast majority of Ukrainian refugees could go to families at home, others in specially built emergency villages with containers, others received a bed from municipalities. They therefore do not put extra pressure on Fedasil’s reception capacity.
For the non-Ukrainian, even if they are escaping from countries at war, the asylum application is examined by the Immigration Office and the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS). The case officer will thoroughly question the asylum seeker for this purpose. All information and data are then compared with international reports on the country of origin and often with direct contacts there.
But due to the large backlog in the processing of those files, it takes an average of one and a half years before an asylum seeker receives a judgment. All this time he or she is waiting and thus occupies a bed in the reception network.
5 comments
Yes. And the countries next to Warzone X can take care of the displaced over yonder.
If you reach a “safe” country you can apply for asylum there.
Note: it’s not possible to request international protection from Belgium while not being physically present in Belgium. So that creates the barrier that you have to get here in the first place.
We always whine that countries in the region should take in refugees so they don’t come over here. Well, for the Ukraine war we (the EU) are the region… Doing any less would be hugely hypocritical imho.
It’s broad institutional racism, no need to mince words about it. I still remember in the first few days of the Ukraine war many news reporters were quoted talking about how “this is different because they’re more civilized”.
Ukrainians are real refugees, all parts of their country is under threat of being bombed all the time. The other “refugees” are mostly economic migrants since they want to travel through 8-12 countries before claiming asylum.
There is a difference between an entire country nextdoor at war and bits and pieces of far away countries with internal conflicts we know little about.