“No Children on the Streets”: A First Family Finds Refuge in the Béguinage Church

At the Bégui­nage Church, a first fami­ly found refuge last night. The fami­ly had alrea­dy been gran­ted refu­gee sta­tus in ano­ther Euro­pean Union coun­try. Due to recent mea­sures, such fami­lies are no lon­ger entit­led to accom­mo­da­tion in Bel­gium.
This shel­ter ini­tia­tive is part of the soli­da­ri­ty cam­pai­gn “No Chil­dren on the Streets. Per­iod.”, led by House of Com­pas­sion, Bel­Re­fu­gees, and Vluch­te­lin­gen­werk Vlaanderen.

Since August, fami­lies alrea­dy reco­gni­zed in ano­ther EU mem­ber state have been exclu­ded from recep­tion faci­li­ties in Bel­gium. Orga­ni­za­tions are dee­ply concer­ned about these deci­sions, which leave more people — inclu­ding chil­dren — on the streets.

The Kari­mi* fami­ly is the first to be hos­ted at the Bégui­nage Church. The father fled Afgha­nis­tan with his wife and chil­dren. The fami­ly was gran­ted refu­gee sta­tus in Greece but ended up on the streets just a week later.

“My son’s foot has been bro­ken since Afgha­nis­tan. In Greece, we never mana­ged to see a doc­tor,” he explains. “We thought Bel­gium would be dif­ferent. But here too, we had to sleep out­side with our children.”

Father Daniel Alliët, who ope­ned the doors of the church, calls it “an act of humanity.”

“A church can­not be a struc­tu­ral solu­tion, but it can be a ges­ture of resis­tance,” he says. “When the autho­ri­ties leave fami­lies out in the cold, we must show that we do not accept it.”

House of Com­pas­sion and Bel­Re­fu­gees call for the res­to­ra­tion of shel­ter access for fami­lies with children.

“No child should have to sleep out­side,” they declare.

* Name chan­ged for pri­va­cy reasons.