We finally had our first normal week at the arrival centre. It felt really good to be able to talk to people properly and share information. I also felt like, I learned a lot this week as I met people with new questions that never occurred to me. One of the topics that I had not really thought about was access to medical care for women who become pregnant during the asylum process.

On Tuesday evening, a lady called me to say that her contraception had failed and that she wanted to know how the maternity system worked in Belgium and what her options were. I had no idea. We have learned a lot about the right to medical care and how asylum seekers should go about getting Fedasil to cover their medical costs, but I never took the time to learn how the healthcare system functions in general. I also did not know anything about female support groups or where this lady could go to get information and support opposed to access to a doctor for blood tests to confirm what she already knew.

In the end I was able to get some good advice from one of my colleagues and forward it on to the lady in question. Nonetheless, as I started looking in to the Belgian health care system, I discovered it was extremely complex and somewhat difficult to navigate, especially given the fact that the rules change depending on the region where an asylum seeker is living. This is especially problematic given that asylum seekers can, of course, be moved from one centre in one region to another one in a different region during their procedure.

"When I try to put myself into this woman’s shoes, I cannot even begin to think about how difficult it would be"

When I try to put myself into this woman’s shoes, I cannot even begin to think about how difficult it would be to navigate the system without any help and without speaking any of the official languages used in Belgium. My only really personal experience with the Belgian healthcare system has been booking a PCR tests and I must admit that despite everything, I found this to be a super stressful and difficult process.

To put the situation into perspective, I have had four Covid tests and, each time, I faced a different problem, nearly all of which stemmed from the fact that I do not a Belgian national identity card. The first time I went, I needed the PCR test to travel which made things slightly easier as it is possible for foreigners to book paid tests online. Nonetheless, when I arrived and told them that I did not have a national identity number the man behind the desk smiled and informed that he was sorry but the doctor in charge was on his lunch break so I would have to wait between thirty minutes and an hour because he was the only person who could verify my passport and create an ID number for me.

The doctor came back early from his lunch break which was great. What was not so great was that when I finally got my result, the lab had accidently assigned it to an ID number which was slightly different to the one the doctor had created the previous day. This ultimately meant that I could not download my EU Covid Certificate to fly home and instead had to try my luck and hope that the customs officers in Ireland would accept my French lab result. Luckily, it worked but I was very stressed and I think I stressed out most of my colleagues who had the misfortune of being in the office that day!

Skip forward three weeks and the saga continues. This time I realise that even though I have been sent a code for a free on arrival test, I can’t book the free test online because it will only let you book a free one with a Belgian identity number, which of course, I still don’t have. I try to explain this to the team working at the centre who are all equally baffled. In the end, they tell me I should pay and try get a reimbursement.

I do this. Reimbursements aren’t possible I’m told later when I call the helpline but they do reiterate that the test should be free. Seven days after my arrival, I have to book a second test and I have the same problem again and eventually have to call the helpline to book the appointment for me on their system. This works but then there is an unexpected error and the test has to be redone the next day, so again, I have to call the helpline and ask for them to arrange everything for me.

This time there is a new problem because my free code has of course expired because it is linked to the dud test from the previous day. The system does not account for human errors during testing. After thinking about the situation, a little bit, the helpline assistant’s advice to me is to ‘march back’ and demand a new test. I did not really need to demand a second tests, the staff were very understanding and got everything sorted within a few minutes, but still, it was a long day and a rather complicated procedure.

"Sometimes really simple tasks become complicated, very quickly, when you are outside your country of origin"

During several of my phone calls, it was not possible to talk to somebody who spoke English even though there is technically an English helpline. This was not such a big problem for me as I could explain what I needed in French and I also had colleagues who made a lot of phone calls on my behalf. Nonetheless, I imagine that it would be much more difficult for somebody speaking a language which is less commonly used in Belgium such as Pashtu or even Spanish.

I also think it would have been much harder for somebody who did not have access to the internet and could not refer back to different government websites to back up what they were saying. I also, most definitely, do not know what would have happened if I could not produce an ID.

Sometimes really simple tasks become complicated, very quickly, when you are outside your country of origin. I still can not fully explain all the ins and outs of the Belgian maternity system but from what I have read, signing up for maternity care is more complicated than getting a Covid test.

For this reason and so many others, I really to not envy the lady who phoned me. I hope that everything works out okay for her and that she gets all the support she needs from her social assistant and the centre my colleague recommended but, either way, I cannot imagine it will be easy for her.

She, like all the other young mothers either living in the asylum system or without documents, should really be admired for the strength, their patience and their ability to find solutions to the countless challenges that they face, which of course, go far beyond administrative tasks!