The Belgian Government approves the creation of about 2,500 additional reception places

To face the important inflow of asylum seekers in Belgium, the government has taken measures to create additional reception places.

Today, the Council of Ministers has approved the creation of about 2.500 reception places. This measure has been proposed by the State Secretary for Asylum Policy and Migration Theo Francken (N-VA), in order to deal with the increase in the number of asylum seekers.

The government has already approved a series of measures in the short, medium or long term. Nevertheless, it was still necessary to take additional measures, as the State Secretary explained: “2,960 asylum applications were registered in July, which is largely superior to the monthly average during the asylum crisis of 2011, which was 2,123 applications. In order to avoid such a scenario, I have asked the government to approve this emergency measure to avoid that people applying for asylum end up in the streets”.

The Council of Ministers has approved a budget of about 15 million euros to create these additional reception places.

In order to define the locations of these reception places, the Secretary of State involved the relevant bodies in discussions. A list of the reception places locations was drafted, taking into consideration the availability of the locations (the full list of locations is available here).

The Press Release can be read here (in French and in Dutch).

Publication Date: Thu 06 Aug 2015
Geography:
Keywords:
Main theme:
Commissioner:
News type: