Violent Incidents at Belgian Asylum Centres Have Doubled Since 2017

Chris TomlinsonApril 9, 2022

The number of violent incidents in Belgian asylum reception centres has doubled since 2017, with half of the total incidents involving physical or verbal assaults on asylum centre workers or other asylum seekers.

A total of 1,281 violent incidents were reported to have occurred in Belgian asylum reception centres last year, double the number from 2017 and a third larger than in 2020, with the increase being attributed to several factors.

Belgium’s Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Sammy Mahdi, stated this week that part of the reason for the increase in incidents was that more incidents were being officially reported but the Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (Fedasil) stated that there has also been greater pressure on the asylum system, La Libre reports.

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The agency noted that flooding in parts of Belgium last year put added pressure on asylum reception centres as it required Fedasil to temporarily put aside around 1,000 accommodation places for those affected, while some accommodation was damaged as a result of the floods.

Issues regarding a lack of places for migrants remained through the rest of 2021, with a December report noting that hundreds of asylum seekers were living in the streets of the Belgian and European Union capital of Brussels.

According to a report from the EU-funded website InfoMigrants in December 2021, hundreds of asylum seekers were lining up to file asylum applications at a Fedasil office in central Brussels daily — a phenomenon that had gone on for weeks as of mid-December.

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The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August of 2021 has also had an impact on the asylum system, with migrants supposedly fleeing the Taliban tending to be men, who are statistically more likely to engage in violent behaviour than women and children.

Belgium remains a hub of mass migration, both legal and illegal, which has shifted the demographics of the country to the point that a 2021 report noted that one-third of the residents of the country now come from migration backgrounds or are foreign nationals.