A new centre for processing applications for temporary protection opened at Jules Bordet Institute last Friday. Since then, all Ukrainians have been able to go register their application at Jules Bordet instead at Klein Kasteeltje. We thought that the new centre would mean that fewer people would be turned away from Klein Kasteeltje, but, unfortunately, this is not the case. The difference between the two environments and how refugees are treated at each location is startling.  Yesterday, we were the only people around Klein Kasteeltje as police officers ran to their vans to pick up cannisters of teargas, while, at Jules Bordet various groups of civil society actors and NGO’s provided applicants with tea, coffee and additional supplies.

It is great to see how many people are coming out to support Ukrainians but we really need to see more of this support at Klein Kasteeltje as well, especially now that people have started sleeping outside the door again. Thousands of Belgian citizens have gone to their local commune to say that they are willing to host those fleeing the war in Ukraine. If they are willing to host Ukrainians, these people are also more than likely willing to host people of other nationalities too, yet, nobody is asking them to do this – not even when those concerned are also fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Instead, these people are left wandering the streets and pushed away from Klein Kasteeltje by police officers who tell them that they not have the right to request asylum this week. Moreover, they tell them that they do not have the right to sleep or even stand around waiting on certain streets. The current system is failing non-Ukrainian refugees including those who are coming from Ukraine itself.

Refugees are not criminals, the police should not need to run and get tear gas, in fact they should not even need to be present at Klein Kasteeltje but this is what the situation has come to and not enough people are taking about it. 

The situation makes the Startpunt team’s work considerably more complicated. We now have to leave earlier in the mornings so that we do not find ourselves in a position whereby we have to tell all the single male applicants that they will not get anywhere to sleep. This is always difficult but it is even harder now that people can compare their treatment to that of another group. I can explain the different regulations but I cannot explain why one group gets a bed and the other does not. I also cannot explain why one group gets tea and coffee while the other is told to go away and come back again every morning for an indefinite period of time.  

I find it especially difficult to explain to long-term Ukrainian residence, that they not have the right to temporary protection and that they must wait at Klein Kasteeltje indefinitely in order to be able to request asylum. I think this is particularly challenging as many of the long-term residents we meet do not want to ask for asylum because they believe that they are likely to be refused refugee status based on their country of origin. This is particularly problematic when the person concerned no longer has ties with their country of origin and considers themselves to be Ukrainian even if they do not have Ukrainian nationality.

"Refugees are not criminals, the police should not need to run and get tear gas"

Yesterday; I met one man who just turned 21. He had been living in Ukraine since he was a young child. He told me that he does not remember his life in Africa and that he no longer has any friends or family there – how can do we tell this man to go back to a country he does not know and if he does go back there how will that decision impact his ability to return to Ukraine in future?

At the same time there are all the students who want to finish their education but do not know where to go. I met a group of students today who told me that they were worried because they have been in Belgium for three days and they have not been able to get enter Klein Kasteeltje. Unlike Ukrainians, they are in Belgium illegally as they do not have a Schengen visa and, as such they are frightened by the prospect of meeting a police officer and being detained.

At the same time, they also told me that they do not know whether they really should ask for asylum because it is not what they need. In their words all they need is for the State to give them time – time to see how the conflict plays out and time to see if they can find a university where they can continue to their studies. The fact that they cannot enter Klein Kasteeltje means that they spend their time looking for somewhere safe to sleep. In this situation it is hard to find time to plan, especially given that, none of the current options being presented to them take their need to finish their education into consideration.

This morning, I talked with three students all of whom were in the final year of their studies. They said that in their countries of origin, they cannot get the same standard of education. Professors are always on strike because the government cannot afford to pay them and even when the professors are in the class room there is no guarantee they will complete a full lesson spontaneous power cuts means that they do not have enough light to see what they are writing.

"This is not normal"

As a result, most people take five to six years to finish a three-year degree. If they were to go back home now they would be starting from scratch and looking at possibly spending a total of ten years to get a diploma that will not give them the same job opportunities as the one they would have earned after four years in Ukraine.

I hope that the State will soon realise how excluding long-term residents from the Temporary Protection Directive is unfair and puts people’s health and dignity at risk. Moreover, I wish that it would take note of what is happening at Klein Kasteeltje and that the Cabinet would take time to reflect on how their policies are creating one crisis after another.

This is not normal. People should not have to spends weeks sleeping on the street and living in fear of the police in order to seek international protection in Belgium. Belgium is supposed to be at the centre of the EU, the centre of  European values – dignity, human rights, freedom, equality, rule of law- but yet I am still waiting to see actions that embody these values at Klein Kasteeltje.

Instead, what my team and I experience every day are officials who are making policies in an attempt to circumvent the rights that the supposedly stand up far. Perhaps, if they were forced to visit some of the squats that applicants are living in they would think about at least offering some sort of basic humanitarian assistance and information on where to seek help to those who are sleeping outside Klein Kasteeltje.