Concrete and po­si­tive ci­ti­zen pro­po­sals to im­prove the re­cep­tion of un­do­cu­men­ted mi­grants in Bel­gium

Throu­ghout Bel­gium, ci­ti­zens and mu­ni­ci­pal re­pre­sen­ta­tives, aged 4 to 94, have for­mu­la­ted po­si­tive pro­po­sals to build to­ge­ther a fair and sus­tai­nable re­cep­tion for people exi­led in our coun­try.

Em­ploy­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties

Re­gu­la­ri­za­tion of un­do­cu­men­ted mi­grants : al­low cer­tain or­ga­ni­za­tions to give their ad­dresses to un­do­cu­men­ted mi­grants to en­cou­rage of­fi­cial work ins­tead of un­de­cla­red work and to pro­vide them with shel­ter.
Ma­king work ac­ces­sible to people wi­thout pa­pers for eve­ry job of­fer that does not find a can­di­date. Re­gu­la­ri­za­tion of people wi­thout pa­pers, decent hou­sing for eve­ryone.
Al­low mi­grants to work in the sec­tors in which they are qua­li­fied.
Fa­ci­li­tate di­plo­ma equi­va­lence through a skills test/apprenticeship that en­ables cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, ra­ther than ha­ving to re­peat the stu­dies from scratch.
Work for mi­grants for a decent wage.
Hel­ping people to ob­tain a re­war­ding so­cial sta­tus (ins­tead of just being an asy­lum see­ker).
– Equi­va­lence of sco­lar de­grees =) ad­mi­nis­tra­tive sim­pli­fi­ca­tion of equi­va­lence.
– Ac­cess to long-term and pro­fes­sio­nal trai­ning courses.
– Work per­mit for eve­ryone.
Avai­la­bi­li­ty of a trans­la­tor to ob­tain a dri­ver’s li­cense so that qua­li­fied people who do not yet speak the lan­guage per­fect­ly can ac­cess a job that re­quires a dri­ver’s li­cense.
En­abling lo­cal dri­ver trai­ning for illi­te­rate people.
Ad­di­tio­nal day­care cen­ters and af­ter-school care. Ope­ning and clo­sing of day­care cen­ters adap­ted to wor­king hours (clea­ning, etc.) Mi­grants do not have a fa­mi­ly en­vi­ron­ment that can pro­vide child­care.
Amend the Com­bi­ned Per­mit Act.
I pro­pose a lit­tle more hu­ma­ni­ty, so that all people in need have ac­cess to trai­ning or stu­dies to de­ve­lop them­selves.
We should get to work fas­ter and re­co­gnize the ca­pa­bi­li­ties of mi­grants, be­cause wi­thout work, land­lords will not want to rent them any ac­com­mo­da­tion.
That the di­plo­mas ob­tai­ned in these coun­tries are re­co­gni­zed and pro­vide ac­cess to a short trai­ning course in­clu­ding a lan­guage mo­dule, so that they main­tain their self-es­teem.
Create op­por­tu­ni­ties to conti­nue ta­king lan­guage courses on the job, to en­able a work cir­cum­stances. (on-site courses, sub­si­di­zed, not at the em­ployer’s ex­pense).
Help com­pa­nies that want to work with asy­lum see­kers by of­fe­ring cultu­ral me­dia­tors to bet­ter un­ders­tand each other.
That these people get a chance in life, work in so­cie­ty, be­cause that is what they are loo­king for when they ar­rive here.
Set up a gui­dance sys­tem so that people can en­ter a real wor­king en­vi­ron­ment more qui­ck­ly and re­gain their self-es­teem and self-confi­dence.
We must al­so re­gu­la­rize all un­do­cu­men­ted wor­kers and al­low re­fu­gees to work when their skills meet em­ploy­ment de­mand ; for the same sa­la­ry as a Bel­gian.
Give mi­grant wor­kers a stable re­si­dence per­mit.

Mo­bi­li­ty

More bus lines in ru­ral areas for more mo­bi­li­ty to em­ploy­ment.
Ea­sier ac­cess to a dri­ver’s li­cense (with trans­la­tor) to ac­cess cer­tain jobs.
Make a bus sub­scrip­tion avai­lable to un­do­cu­men­ted im­mi­grants.

Hou­sing in­fra­struc­ture

Let there be a concrete wave of so­li­da­ri­ty, a mee­ting place for eve­ryone + ac­cess to food…
A kind of “Res­tos du coeur” for ho­me­less mi­grants. At least shel­ter. The go­vern­ment must wel­come mi­grants.
That my mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ty may par­ti­ci­pate in the CIRE plan pro­po­sed in Sep­tem­ber 2022 ! for a (fair) spread per mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ty.
Im­prove ac­cess to le­gal aid and in­ter­pre­ters for re­fu­gees.
Less vio­lence against them, bet­ter ac­cess to cen­ters for unac­com­pa­nied mi­nors.
Let’s wel­come chil­dren and ado­les­cents who want a bet­ter life.
Im­pro­ving hy­giene in re­fu­gee camps.
Place the in­ter­ests of chil­dren at the cen­ter of a wel­come po­li­cy and prac­tice, so that chil­dren in re­fu­gee cen­ters can be chil­dren first.
Make the en­vi­ron­ment ac­ces­sible, so that chil­dren do not live alone in the shel­ter.
Or­ga­nize a strong net­work around shel­ters ; clo­ser ties with edu­ca­tion, lei­sure and bet­ter ac­cess to (men­tal) health care.
In­fra­struc­ture sui­table for chil­dren and fa­mi­lies in the re­cep­tion centres : suf­fi­cient­ly large rooms, pos­si­bi­li­ty to co­ok your­self, safe sa­ni­ta­ry fa­ci­li­ties in the room, in­door and out­door areas sui­table for chil­dren by age, com­pu­ters and Wi­Fi for ho­me­work.
A single tran­sit cen­ter in each ci­ty with tar­ge­ted and co­or­di­na­ted ope­ra­tions ba­sed on the in­ten­ded aid ob­jec­tive. With in­ter­pre­ters of course ! Contact with ci­ti­zens for well-de­fi­ned and not too in­tense ac­ti­vi­ties not to dis­cou­rage them.
More le­gal ad­vice and cla­ri­fi­ca­tion for fo­rei­gners.
More cen­ters for mi­grants. More sub­si­dies for the as­so­cia­tions that col­la­bo­rate with them. Let eve­ryone do their part, let them be wel­come, in the coun­try they choose. Know that the po­lice al­so sup­port you.
More ac­tions with as­so­cia­tions.
That sui­table re­cep­tion cen­ters are ea­si­ly ac­ces­sible.
More hu­ma­ni­ty in the world ! It is sha­me­ful to hide be­hind po­li­ti­cal or fi­nan­cial consi­de­ra­tions… Hu­man ac­tion must be ta­ken. We have a du­ty to help those in need.
Pro­vide emer­gen­cy shel­ter in all mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ties to prevent mi­grants from en­ding up on the streets (al­so in the sum­mer).

Edu­ca­tion and trai­ning

Help/support with trans­la­tion, fin­ding a job, even with com­plete lan­guage in­abi­li­ty.
Pro­vi­ding ac­cess to hi­gher edu­ca­tion to un­do­cu­men­ted people.
Bet­ter re­cep­tion and sup­port for re­fu­gee stu­dents ar­ri­ving in the Bel­gian edu­ca­tion sys­tem !
There are not en­ough schools to learn the lan­guage in vil­lages and out­side =) in­crease the num­ber of trai­ning cen­ters.
Lan­guage les­sons should be free.
There should be more op­por­tu­ni­ties for lan­guage les­sons, be­cause we have to wait a long time to start.
Job of­fices’ of­fers must be avai­lable in mul­tiple lan­guages to qui­ck­ly find a job.
All people in need of care from ano­ther coun­try must have ac­cess to cer­ti­fied trai­ning so that they can then work and be­come self-re­liant.
Let re­fu­gees re­ceive trai­ning, let them work in Bel­gium and then let them re­turn to their coun­try as soon as there is peace.
Of­fe­ring cer­ti­fied En­glish tea­chers to un­ders­tand each other bet­ter.
I pro­pose that all chil­dren should be able to par­ti­ci­pate in all school ac­ti­vi­ties, in­clu­ding school trips.
I pro­pose that we can go to school more qui­ck­ly af­ter ar­ri­ving in Bel­gium.
I pro­pose that we give courses on Bel­gian culture to un­ders­tand it bet­ter.
De­ve­lo­ping so­cial and pro­fes­sio­nal in­te­gra­tion pro­grams for mi­grants.

In­for­ma­tion

Fa­ci­li­tate the or­ga­ni­za­tion of mee­tings on the mi­gra­tion is­sue and make in­for­ma­tion ea­si­ly ac­ces­sible.
The sto­ries and dif­fi­cul­ties of young people left on the streets by Bel­gium, in vio­la­tion of their rights, must be made known !
Bet­ter in­form mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ties so that they can re­ceive people who have been for­ced to flee their coun­try at war or were sub­ject to a dic­ta­tor­ship, in a di­gni­fied man­ner.
As a ci­ti­zen, I pro­pose to de­dra­ma­tize the in­flux of mi­grants. In 2022 there were 36,500. Far from the 46,000 in 2015 ! We must in­form people cor­rect­ly.
As a ci­ti­zen, I pro­pose to in­ter­vene with re­si­dents and au­tho­ri­ties in coun­tries of ori­gin to prevent ris­ky mi­gra­tion.
In­form the coun­tries of ori­gin about li­ving condi­tions in Bel­gium.
For example, let the main TV chan­nels of­fer ten mi­nutes of tes­ti­mo­nials from a mi­grant once a week in the style of “Le pe­tit Ber­ger” by Adam or the jour­ney of a ra­cia­li­zed wo­man.
Let the me­dia and po­li­ti­cians stop ste­reo­ty­ping mi­grants. They of­fer op­por­tu­ni­ties and not dan­ger to the host coun­try.
Re­mem­ber that asy­lum see­kers are not pro­fi­teers, but people who are in life dan­ger or who are vic­tims of abuse. It is unac­cep­table not to wel­come them pro­per­ly in ac­cor­dance with the law.
Don’t ac­cuse mi­grants out of igno­rance.
Real re­search work on the treat­ment of mi­grants in cen­ters in Bel­gium and in­ter­na­tio­nal­ly.
Let’s avoid confu­sion : an asy­lum see­ker or a mi­grant is es­sen­tial­ly not a ter­ro­rist. Al­most all mi­grants want to live in peace and par­ti­ci­pate in so­cie­ty.
Re­mem­ber that eve­ryone is the son or grand­son of an im­mi­grant…
En­able scien­ti­fic and so­cio­lo­gi­cal stu­dies to de­mons­trate the po­si­tive contri­bu­tions of mi­gra­tion and to wi­de­ly dis­se­mi­nate them in the press.
The dis­se­mi­na­tion of sta­tis­tics re­vea­led by va­rious stu­dies can make us aware of the ge­nuine rea­li­ty of mi­gra­tion.

Re­gu­la­ri­za­tion of un­do­cu­men­ted mi­grants : al­low cer­tain or­ga­ni­za­tions to give their ad­dresses to un­do­cu­men­ted mi­grants to en­cou­rage of­fi­cial work ins­tead of un­de­cla­red work and to pro­vide them with shel­ter.
Ma­king work ac­ces­sible to people wi­thout pa­pers for eve­ry job of­fer that does not find a can­di­date. Re­gu­la­ri­za­tion of people wi­thout pa­pers, decent hou­sing for eve­ryone.
Al­low mi­grants to work in the sec­tors in which they are qua­li­fied.
Fa­ci­li­tate di­plo­ma equi­va­lence through a skills test/apprenticeship that en­ables cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, ra­ther than ha­ving to re­peat the stu­dies from scratch.
Work for mi­grants for a decent wage.
Hel­ping people to ob­tain a re­war­ding so­cial sta­tus (ins­tead of just being an asy­lum see­ker).
– Equi­va­lence of sco­lar de­grees =) ad­mi­nis­tra­tive sim­pli­fi­ca­tion of equi­va­lence.
– Ac­cess to long-term and pro­fes­sio­nal trai­ning courses.
– Work per­mit for eve­ryone.
Avai­la­bi­li­ty of a trans­la­tor to ob­tain a dri­ver’s li­cense so that qua­li­fied people who do not yet speak the lan­guage per­fect­ly can ac­cess a job that re­quires a dri­ver’s li­cense.
En­abling lo­cal dri­ver trai­ning for illi­te­rate people.
Ad­di­tio­nal day­care cen­ters and af­ter-school care. Ope­ning and clo­sing of day­care cen­ters adap­ted to wor­king hours (clea­ning, etc.) Mi­grants do not have a fa­mi­ly en­vi­ron­ment that can pro­vide child­care.
Amend the Com­bi­ned Per­mit Act.
I pro­pose a lit­tle more hu­ma­ni­ty, so that all people in need have ac­cess to trai­ning or stu­dies to de­ve­lop them­selves.
We should get to work fas­ter and re­co­gnize the ca­pa­bi­li­ties of mi­grants, be­cause wi­thout work, land­lords will not want to rent them any ac­com­mo­da­tion.
That the di­plo­mas ob­tai­ned in these coun­tries are re­co­gni­zed and pro­vide ac­cess to a short trai­ning course in­clu­ding a lan­guage mo­dule, so that they main­tain their self-es­teem.
Create op­por­tu­ni­ties to conti­nue ta­king lan­guage courses on the job, to en­able a work cir­cum­stances. (on-site courses, sub­si­di­zed, not at the em­ployer’s ex­pense).
Help com­pa­nies that want to work with asy­lum see­kers by of­fe­ring cultu­ral me­dia­tors to bet­ter un­ders­tand each other.
That these people get a chance in life, work in so­cie­ty, be­cause that is what they are loo­king for when they ar­rive here.
Set up a gui­dance sys­tem so that people can en­ter a real wor­king en­vi­ron­ment more qui­ck­ly and re­gain their self-es­teem and self-confi­dence.
We must al­so re­gu­la­rize all un­do­cu­men­ted wor­kers and al­low re­fu­gees to work when their skills meet em­ploy­ment de­mand ; for the same sa­la­ry as a Bel­gian.
Give mi­grant wor­kers a stable re­si­dence per­mit.

Li­ving to­ge­ther

Spend a day in their place. Let them be free, they are people like us. Ex­pe­rience their lives.
I pro­pose that we vi­go­rous­ly com­bat ra­cism and dis­cri­mi­na­tion from an ear­ly age by crea­ting mo­ments of awa­re­ness, re­flec­tion and ac­tion in all schools.
And what if it were you ? They have the right to live a nor­mal life. A net­work for a mi­gra­tion po­li­cy, please.
Let eve­ryone do with and for others what he/she would like to be done for him/her.
The other is YOUR mir­ror image.
En­gage in mi­gra­tion jus­tice eve­ryw­here !
Would like to see more res­pect­ful re­cep­tion (know­ledge of the culture of others) at ins­ti­tu­tions.
Ins­tead of tur­ning away, let us try to un­ders­tand the rea­sons that drive would-be re­fu­gees to leave eve­ry­thing, their home, their fa­mi­ly, their ho­me­land, be­cause life there be­comes im­pos­sible for them.
Let’s race ! Who shows so­li­da­ri­ty best !
We should, ins­tead of fea­ring stran­gers, en­dea­vor to dis­co­ver their great­ness. We are all hu­man… Being hu­man means fa­cing the same rea­li­ty : life, death, birth, li­ving with others.
This is­sue is a po­si­tive chal­lenge from which we can learn.
As ma­ny mul­ti­cul­tu­ral en­coun­ters as pos­sible, be­cause lear­ning to know means lear­ning to ac­cept.
Help, un­ders­tand, and ac­cept people who come from el­sew­here and who are dif­ferent wi­thout pre­ju­dice and ac­cept dif­fe­rences.
Conti­nue to en­cou­rage mul­ti­cul­tu­ral en­coun­ters again and again. We should all learn from each other.
Create mo­ments of dis­cus­sion, through board games to create so­cial bonds. Why not spon­so­red ?
Let’s come to­ge­ther to find our si­mi­la­ri­ties and talk to each other, and res­pect dif­fe­rences.
Live and laugh to­ge­ther.
Let’s take the time to meet and un­ders­tand each other so we can move for­ward to­ge­ther.
Let’s look to­ge­ther for what brings us to­ge­ther.
Let’s share our culture, our tra­di­tions.
Ce­le­brate ho­li­days to­ge­ther and ex­change ex­pe­riences.
Dis­co­ver the coun­try by going on a trip to meet more Bel­gians.
Make sure you have friends who speak the lan­guage so you can com­mu­ni­cate out­side of school.
A bet­ter re­cep­tion, but al­so lear­ning Wes­tern culture and rules. More of both.
Let’s forge bonds, let’s create so­li­da­ri­ty ins­tead of ex­clu­sion, let’s create sup­port ins­tead of sub­mis­sion.
Bet­ter in­te­gra­tion and edu­ca­tion for “new” mi­grants, so that there is less so­cial in­equa­li­ty.
I pro­pose a more open and rea­so­ned re­cep­tion in Bel­gium and as­sis­tance to the coun­tries from which they leave.
I pro­pose of­fe­ring mee­ting places with new­co­mers. Of­ten it is fear that pre­vents mee­tings.
Res­pect and know your neigh­bors bet­ter.
Set up sup­port, spon­sor­ship and mee­ting net­works (one, two, us, In­ter­ra, Live in Co­lor) to en­able people to forge new bonds, as they miss the sup­port of their fa­mi­lies, and thus they can join the so­cie­ty of learn to un­ders­tand their host/hostess.
Go out and meet people.
Or­ga­nize co­oking groups. A per­son pre­sents a ty­pi­cal meal from his coun­try. Eve­ryone co­oks to­ge­ther and shares the meal. It is an op­por­tu­ni­ty for dis­cus­sion and ex­changes bet­ween people from dif­ferent back­grounds.
Create a plat­form where eve­ry fo­rei­gner can ask all ques­tions about life in Bel­gium. Be­cause it is ve­ry dif­fi­cult to deal with the va­rious or­ga­ni­za­tions each and eve­ry time.
Vo­lun­teer work.
En­cou­rage “do­na­tions” so that eve­ryone can dress and fur­nish them­selves.
That we are no lon­ger afraid of the other, but that we meet them.
Or­ga­nize cultu­ral events in the ci­ty, on squares, etc.
Get­ting to know ea­cho­ther.
The first is that we must hear them be­fore we judge them, and above all that we must give them the right to speak and ex­plain what they have to say.
I think the unk­nown is sca­ry, but once you get over your dis­com­fort, you can make it work.
May eve­ry com­mu­ni­ty join hands and may the Ni­velles Fes­ti­val at least give place to the vi­brant cultures of Ni­velles” com­mu­ni­ties. Long live in­ter­cul­tu­ra­li­ty!!
De­ve­lop com­mon culture, po­li­ti­cal know­ledge, so­li­da­ri­ty, in­ter­eth­nic and mu­tual aid across ge­ne­ra­tions. Mul­ti­cul­tu­ra­lism is the fu­ture ! En­cou­rage lis­te­ning to and sha­ring cultures and know­ledge.
May the bonds bet­ween com­mu­ni­ties be streng­the­ned.
Let’s build fe­wer walls and more bridges… For­get our com­fort, we need em­pa­thy… Put your­self in their shoes…
Let us all mo­bi­lize to­ge­ther to wel­come dis­pla­ced people, re­gard­less of the rea­sons why they had to or wan­ted to leave their homes. The Earth is ul­ti­ma­te­ly one big place and all people are its ci­ti­zens. Boun­da­ries on­ly exist in nar­row min­ded thin­king.
One can­not look away when mi­se­ry knocks at the door. The world is too small for it.
Let us de­ve­lop com­mon culture, po­li­ti­cal know­ledge, so­li­da­ri­ty and in­ter-eth­nic and mu­tual aid. Mul­ti­cul­tu­ra­lism is the fu­ture !

Heal­th­care

Equal rights for eve­ryone, for example for me­di­cal treat­ments.
I pro­pose that all chil­dren, even those who are un­do­cu­men­ted, can have so­cial in­su­rance and ac­cess to heal­th­care.
Sim­pli­fy emer­gen­cy me­di­cal care pro­ce­dures.
Ac­cess to decent hou­sing, edu­ca­tion for chil­dren and heal­th­care for all.
Re­fu­gees de­serve a decent wel­come.

Ac­com­mo­da­tion

Re­gu­la­ri­za­tion of un­do­cu­men­ted im­mi­grants, ex­pan­sion of shel­ters in ILAs and re­cep­tion centres. Al­low NGOs and non-pro­fits, or­ga­ni­za­tions, churches, etc. to pro­vide their ad­dresses to un­do­cu­men­ted mi­grants so they can find shel­ter.
A roof for eve­ryone, ba­sic com­fort (food, hea­ting) for eve­ryone, edu­ca­tion for eve­ryone. Let’s stand in so­li­da­ri­ty… we all live to­ge­ther on the same pla­net !
Fi­nan­cial­ly af­for­dable hou­sing for eve­ryone !
Pro­mote so­li­da­ri­ty, the de­ve­lop­ment of (exis­ting) live in com­mu­ni­ties, in­ter­ge­ne­ra­tio­nal, mul­ti­cul­tu­ral. Long live di­ver­si­ty and hu­man in­ter­ac­tion with each other.
More help fin­ding ac­com­mo­da­tion.
Shel­ter for eve­ryone and al­so food.
Gi­ving people ac­cess to a stable and safe li­ving en­vi­ron­ment.
Re­pur­po­sing va­cant buil­dings to house the ho­me­less.
In­crease the num­ber of beds in FEDASIL cen­ters and ILAS, if ne­ces­sa­ry use out­door areas (for example : FEDASIL in Oi­gnies with a huge area to place tents).
Avai­la­bi­li­ty of an in­ter­pre­ter to bet­ter un­ders­tand pro­ce­dures (ren­ting).
Qua­li­ty care for chil­dren wi­thout fear, stress and un­cer­tain­ty about shel­ter af­ter their school day.
Af­ter the floods, ma­ny houses in Liège were left emp­ty and di­la­pi­da­ted. Let us use them, put them in or­der and of­fer them to those who need them.
No one should sleep on the street, ac­com­mo­da­tion must be crea­ted.
Eve­ryone must have a roof over their head when they ar­rive on Bel­gian soil.
Avoi­ding ghet­tos by al­lo­wing di­verse ori­gins in­to com­mu­ni­ty hou­sing.
A mu­ni­ci­pal dis­per­sal plan for mi­grants.
I pro­pose to oc­cu­py va­cant buil­dings to house them.
In­su­late so­cial hou­sing and im­prove its acous­tics. Make homes heal­thy.
Make sure land­lords are to be re­min­ded of their obli­ga­tions : de­po­sits in­to an ac­count, ren­tal contract, homes with sa­ni­ta­ry fa­ci­li­ties.
Hou­sing 3,000 people in a coun­try with 11,000,000 in­ha­bi­tants is NOT a big pro­blem.
I pro­pose that so­cial hou­sing as­so­cia­tions call on trans­la­tors (ex Uni­ver­bal) to ex­plain the rules and to be able to en­ter in­to ener­gy contracts.
I pro­pose or­ga­ni­zing in­tro­duc­to­ry mee­tings for land­lords and te­nants to get to know each other bet­ter and bet­ter un­ders­tand their concerns and needs.
There must be more so­cial hou­sing for eve­ryone.
A much more hu­mane asy­lum po­li­cy, hou­sing for all these mi­grants who end up on the street.
May all mi­grants be bet­ter re­cei­ved in our coun­try. Kee­ping them hou­sed and fed is a prio­ri­ty. I don’t want to see any more tents along the ca­nal, nor mi­grants lying in train sta­tions.
I pro­pose that we take unac­com­pa­nied mi­nors in­to fa­mi­lies.
That the Bel­gian State and the Re­gions make more shel­ters and hou­sing avai­lable to mi­grants.
Crea­ting shel­ter ac­com­mo­da­tions for the short or me­dium term.

Go­vern­ment po­li­cy

A fair mi­gra­tion po­li­cy.
Eu­rope must take mea­sures to re­ceive mi­grants with di­gni­ty to prevent tra­ge­dies in the Me­di­ter­ra­nean.
Streng­then the fight against gen­der in­equa­li­ty to pro­tect mi­grant wo­men from abuse du­ring their flight to asy­lum.
The go­vern­ment should sup­port ci­ti­zens” in­vol­ve­ment in wel­co­ming mi­grants.
Set­ting up pa­th­ways to le­gal re­si­dence, with at­ten­tion to vul­ne­rable groups.
I would like to see clo­sed re­fu­gee cen­ters per­ma­nent­ly abo­li­shed.
End de­ten­tion and for­ced ex­pul­sion of fo­rei­gners for simple ad­mi­nis­tra­tive rea­sons.
Shel­ter for ap­pli­cants for in­ter­na­tio­nal pro­tec­tion : no ho­me­less­ness !
Abo­li­tion of the Du­blin Re­gu­la­tion and abo­li­tion of the ex­ter­na­li­za­tion of bor­ders.
Pro­vide more hu­mane and smoo­ther shel­ter for mi­grants.
Eve­ry mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ty must take its res­pon­si­bi­li­ty in the re­cep­tion of re­fu­gees and asy­lum see­kers. Done with “not in my ba­ckyard”.
Trans­fer fun­ding for clo­sed cen­ters to bet­ter fun­ding for open shel­ters.
The mo­ney we are willing to spend to send people back across the bor­der should ins­tead be used to give them a di­gni­fied home (hou­sing, edu­ca­tion, me­di­cal care, etc.).
That the Bel­gian go­vern­ment le­ga­lizes ALL “ille­gal” mi­grants.
May eve­ry per­son be trea­ted with di­gni­ty and hu­ma­ni­ty.
I wish eve­ry per­son who ar­rives in our coun­try the hope and the condi­tions ne­ces­sa­ry to start again with peace of mind.
Li­ving on the streets, de­ten­tion centres, de­por­ta­tion agree­ments with non-de­mo­cra­tic coun­tries can no lon­ger be ac­cep­ted.
Eu­rope must take mea­sures to wel­come mi­grants to prevent tra­ge­dies in the Me­di­ter­ra­nean.
More hu­ma­ni­ty in the pro­ces­sing of asy­lum ap­pli­ca­tions.
The go­vern­ment should sup­port the in­vol­ve­ment of ci­ti­zens in the re­cep­tion of mi­grants.
That mi­grants are wel­co­med in a more hu­mane way.
That they are vie­wed and wel­co­med as people.
How ma­ny va­cant buil­dings are there that could be as­si­gned to them ? That’s just about po­li­ti­cal will !
To have hu­man de­cen­cy res­pec­ted by my own coun­try, Bel­gium.
Which coun­try can claim to be a state of law and ignore the ru­lings of the Eu­ro­pean Court of Hu­man Rights ? To­day I am asha­med of my coun­try, I am asha­med of being Bel­gian.
There are laws, but lu­cki­ly there are al­so people.
If the go­vern­ment conti­nues to act ille­gal­ly, then on­ly ci­vil di­so­be­dience re­mains.
May the Bel­gian go­vern­ment (and all ci­ti­zens) be more hos­pi­table and hu­mane to­wards mi­grants.
Bel­gium and its go­vern­ment should do more jus­tice to their ci­ti­zens.
A mi­gra­tion po­li­cy must res­pect eve­ryo­ne’s hu­man rights and self-es­teem.
Let’s stop sa­ving mo­ney at the ex­pense of hu­ma­ni­ty.
Bel­gian po­li­ti­cians should fi­nal­ly do eve­ry­thing in their po­wer to pro­vide a res­pect­ful and sup­por­tive wel­come to mi­grants from all over the world.
A real ar­ri­val po­li­cy with res­pect for all laws, the Conven­tion on Hu­man Rights, the Ge­ne­va Conven­tion and ESPECIALLY for the fact that we are all people of one world.
I am sho­cked. How can you, “Po­li­ti­cians”, with our mo­ney, think you can leave more than 2,500 people on the streets ? For­tu­na­te­ly, there are SOCIETIES.
The Bel­gian go­vern­ment must res­pect the Eu­ro­pean laws on re­fu­gee asy­lum. When a go­vern­ment takes ille­gal ac­tions, ci­ti­zens right­ly start won­de­ring.
Mi­grants should no lon­ger be cri­mi­na­li­zed : mi­gra­ting is exer­ci­sing your right to per­so­nal mo­bi­li­ty.
That Bel­gian and Eu­ro­pean po­li­ti­cians or­ga­nize mi­gra­tion flows to solve the cur­rent ca­tas­tro­phic sys­tem.
That our so­cie­ty and the po­li­ti­cians who re­present it en­sure that no per­son is left be­hind, whoe­ver they are, whe­re­ver they come from, wha­te­ver their so­cial si­tua­tion.
We wish the po­li­ti­cians the cou­rage to take up their res­pon­si­bi­li­ties !
URGENTLY !!! I would like to set up a re­cep­tion in­fra­struc­ture for mi­grants in my mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ty and guide their ef­forts to­wards in­te­gra­tion in our beau­ti­ful coun­try !
Can the West stop sup­por­ting dic­ta­tor­ships in black Afri­ca ?
Po­li­ti­cians should take concrete mea­sures to re­solve conflicts and eli­mi­nate in­equa­li­ty.
Bet­ter lis­te­ning and more consul­ta­tion bet­ween po­li­ti­cians and ci­ti­zens.
Let mi­gra­tion be a real right and put an end to home vi­sits. We are all the same people from one pla­net !
The pre­ven­tive abo­li­tion of the sys­tem of home en­try. It is not by sear­ching houses that we find ter­ro­rists. It is by pro­vi­ding the ne­ces­sa­ry funds to Jus­tice that ra­di­ca­li­zed in­di­vi­duals will not be over­loo­ked.
I would like to see more mu­ni­ci­pal ac­tions that give mi­grants the wel­come they need.
Mi­gra­tion po­li­cy must pro­mote the re­set­tle­ment of mi­grants and asy­lum see­kers who al­rea­dy have fa­mi­ly on Bel­gian ter­ri­to­ry.
Can the state stop was­ting our mo­ney on fla­shy pro­jects ? We don’t need luxu­ry. Ra­ther, we de­sire the proxi­mi­ty of hap­py, ful­filled, wel­come, ac­tive and free people.
I would like a lit­tle more ef­fort from the go­vern­ment.
Eve­ry per­son on earth de­serves the same op­por­tu­ni­ties in terms of sa­fe­ty, food and health. That all people are trea­ted equal­ly as hu­man beings re­gard­less of their na­tio­na­li­ty.
Clear rules must be laid down and res­pec­ted by the Fe­de­ral State in its mi­gra­tion po­li­cy.
The go­vern­ment must res­pect the law when re­cei­ving mi­grants.
I pro­pose to main­tain the obli­ga­tions of the re­cep­tion mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ties, in­clu­ding my ci­ty, in the long term.
I would like to see the Jus­tice De­part­ment bet­ter fun­ded. It is unac­cep­table to hear that in­hu­mane si­tua­tions re­main un­re­sol­ved be­cause of the un­der­fun­ded ju­di­cial ad­mi­nis­tra­tion !
The re­gu­la­ri­za­tion of un­do­cu­men­ted im­mi­grants, safe and le­gal ways to mi­grate, the wel­co­ming of mi­grants in the dif­ferent mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ties, gua­ran­teeing their ac­tual rights !
May eve­ryone be able to live with di­gni­ty and sa­fe­ty, have pa­pers, in short, live to­ge­ther. For this we need a fai­rer and more hu­mane mi­gra­tion po­li­cy.
Fe­wer mi­nis­ters mean more pro­mises are kept.
Start from re­la­tion­ships bet­ween willing ci­ti­zens and make this in­to po­li­cy =) in­volve ci­ti­zen com­mit­tees and people on the ground in the re­flec­tion on re­cep­tion po­li­cy.
Re­gu­la­ri­za­tion with clear and per­ma­nent cri­te­ria, an in­de­pendent com­mit­tee.
Concrete ac­tions to pro­tect un­do­cu­men­ted people in my mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ty.
Abo­lish­ment of clo­sed centres.
Change the Du­blin pro­ce­dure.
Hu­man Rights coun­try ? Let us use our fi­nan­cial re­sources to put these beau­ti­ful words in­to ac­tion.
The UN has en­dor­sed the rights of mi­grants as a hu­man right : in this spi­rit, I pro­pose to en­cou­rage Bel­gium and the Eu­ro­pean Union to be­come part­ners in this Trea­ty and to si­gn and ra­ti­fy it.
That people from coun­tries at war au­to­ma­ti­cal­ly re­ceive pa­pers.
Can’t my mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ty have “Ci­ti­zen Cards” is­sued ?
Mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ties must re­new their plea for their hos­pi­ta­li­ty and ef­fec­ti­ve­ly com­mit to a po­li­cy of open­ness and wel­come.
Clear and per­ma­nent cri­te­ria for re­gu­la­ri­za­tion.
An in­de­pendent com­mit­tee.
The end of ca­pi­ta­lism ! Be­cause we use fo­rei­gners to lo­wer wages = bad for lo­cal wor­kers = in­crea­sing far-right voices = bree­ding ground for dic­ta­tor­ship.
Qui­ck­ly es­ta­blish re­gu­la­ri­za­tion cri­te­ria.
We, the mul­ti­na­tio­nals of the North, who de­ter­mine the prices of raw ma­te­rials, or­ga­nize the mar­kets, areas culti­va­ted ex­clu­si­ve­ly for us, ships that sail the seas, you see the re­sults on the cli­mate. But are we going to change ?
Let there be no more war in the world.
We want to put the ci­ti­zen at the cen­ter of va­rious po­li­ti­cal de­ci­sions. We must create a break our­selves and be the ar­chi­tects of the re­ne­wal.
Land of hu­man rights ? Shouldn’t we ra­ther use our fi­nan­cial re­sources in a hu­mane way to res­pect these won­der­ful va­lues ?
I pro­pose to abo­lish the Du­blin agree­ments, to oblige the Bel­gian state to res­pect In­ter­na­tio­nal Law.
Anyone who has ar­ri­ved via fa­mi­ly reu­ni­fi­ca­tion should be able to ob­tain na­tio­na­li­ty af­ter 3 years.
Res­pect hu­man di­gni­ty and fun­da­men­tal rights.
Re­ceive them, do not judge or re­ject them.
It is im­pe­ra­tive that po­li­ti­cians act and that our go­vern­ments ful­fill the Eu­ro­pean obli­ga­tions they have agreed to.
Let eve­ry po­li­ti­cian do­nate a day’s sa­la­ry to the ho­me­less.
I pro­pose to re­gu­la­rize people wi­thout re­si­dence per­mits en masse and to res­pect all our in­ter­na­tio­nal obli­ga­tions in the field of mi­gra­tion !

Ad­mi­nis­tra­tive pro­ce­dures

There must be ma­ny more places for eve­ryone who comes to Bel­gium to ap­ply for in­ter­na­tio­nal pro­tec­tion.
Crea­ting cli­mate re­fu­gee sta­tus.
Put eve­ryone on an equal foo­ting du­ring pro­ce­dures.
Hire more staff to speed up ad­mi­nis­tra­tive pro­ce­dures for ob­tai­ning pa­pers.
A re­sident per­mit that would serve as an iden­ti­ty do­cu­ment du­ring the pro­ce­dures (for example Carte Ar­dente / Liège).
We should re­ceive a fas­ter res­ponse when ap­plying for re­fu­gee sta­tus. Ha­ving to wait a few months for a res­ponse is not ac­cep­table.
I pro­pose to give na­tio­na­li­ty un­con­di­tio­nal­ly to people over 60 years of age.
Can’t the pro­ce­dure for ap­plying for re­si­dence pa­pers be shor­ter ?
Shor­ten the du­ra­tion of pro­ce­dures to re­duce fu­ture un­cer­tain­ty and the risk of pres­crip­tion.
I pro­pose to give ci­ti­zen­ship to anyone who has li­ved in the coun­try for five years and is 60 years old, with no work re­qui­re­ment.
Let’s shor­ten the ap­pli­ca­tion per­iod for these people, out of mi­ni­mal hu­man res­pect.
Bel­gium must stop all in­hu­mane and de­gra­ding treat­ment of mi­grants in our coun­try and re­co­gnize them for what they are : an en­rich­ment.

Some phi­lo­so­phi­cal re­flec­tions

The Earth may have li­mits, but the dreams of mi­grants do not !
Love is a safe ha­ven.
I would like a world in which eve­ryone is equal and re­co­gni­zed.
Let’s start thin­king glo­bal­ly, in eve­ryo­ne’s in­ter­est. It is high time to put an end to our greed, which ex­hausts the earth and sends mil­lions of people on­to the road.
Let’s connect with each other, ins­tead of strap­ping wrists.
Eve­ryone is al­ways so­meo­ne’s stran­ger, so let us stop being afraid of them and ha­ting them.
The pla­net be­longs to eve­ryone ! Let’s be uni­ted.
May all those people who were born free and with equal rights be trea­ted with the di­gni­ty they are en­tit­led to !
I would like eve­ry ci­ti­zen of wha­te­ver ori­gin to be able to main­tain their self-es­teem by wel­co­ming them hu­ma­ne­ly.
Un­do­cu­men­ted people are not cri­mi­nals.
Eve­ryone has the right to free­dom and to live the way he or she wants.
Eve­ry per­son has the right to live in com­plete free­dom in the coun­try he or she wants.
We are all ci­ti­zens of the world.
Ap­pea­rances are de­cei­ving ! Don’t just judge by the ex­ter­nal dif­fe­rence…
All people have the right to res­pect !
Wi­thout connec­ting mul­ti­cul­tu­ra­lism the world has no fu­ture.
Abo­li­tion of bor­ders for the free mo­ve­ment of people.
Abo­lish the in­equa­li­ties that prevent so­li­da­ri­ty.
Ope­ning of the bor­ders.
We are all the same.
Let eve­ryone unite for a bet­ter fu­ture.
More peace, more to­le­rance.
Uni­ver­sal ge­ne­ro­si­ty.
No one is a stran­ger on this earth.
Eve­ry per­son de­serves hu­man treat­ment, re­gard­less of one’s back­ground or ori­gin. It is not ac­cep­table to treat fo­rei­gners bad­ly !
Let’s res­pect Hu­man Rights ! Not the other is dif­ferent, not the other is sca­ry, igno­rance is sca­ry. Get­ting to know the other per­son is the so­lu­tion.
Hos­pi­ta­li­ty is an ex­pres­sion of the great­ness of a so­cie­ty, open to the world.
Eve­ryone has the right to free­dom and to live the way he or she wants.
Shel­ter and in­te­gra­tion = short and long term be­ne­fits.
Wi­thout connec­ting mul­ti­cul­tu­ra­lism the world has no fu­ture.
Let’s create connec­tion ins­tead of iso­la­tion, let’s create so­li­da­ri­ty ins­tead of ex­clu­sion, let’s create sup­port ins­tead of sub­mis­sion.
We all come from the same tem­plate and world, re­gard­less of the co­lor of our skin.

Re­gu­la­ri­za­tion

Free­dom of mo­ve­ment for eve­ryone.
Equal op­por­tu­ni­ties for eve­ryone.
Mas­sive re­gu­la­ri­za­tion like du­ring Mi­nis­ter Wa­the­let !
Es­ta­blish cri­te­ria for the re­gu­la­ri­za­tion of un­do­cu­men­ted im­mi­grants.
Re­gu­la­ri­za­tion of all un­do­cu­men­ted im­mi­grants.
Give eve­ryone a re­si­dence per­mit.
Re­gu­la­ri­za­tion of un­do­cu­men­ted im­mi­grants : they live with us and work with and for us.
That the Bel­gian go­vern­ment sets up the re­cep­tion in­fra­struc­ture ne­ces­sa­ry to re­ceive im­mi­grants du­ring the re­gu­la­ri­za­tion pro­ce­dure.

People wi­thout pa­pers

Have ea­sier ac­cess to mo­bi­li­ty.
Abo­li­tion of clo­sed cen­ters.
A re­sident per­mit (Carte Ar­dente / Liège) that can serve as an iden­ti­ty do­cu­ment du­ring the pro­ce­dures.
Let’s avoid fear, pre­ju­dice and cli­chés.
Un­do­cu­men­ted people (mi­nors, men, wo­men) are not sy­no­ny­mous with DANGER. They must be re­co­gni­zed in their rights.
Give them a chance to work.
They’re no convicts, stop lo­cking them up!!!
We put on the hand­cuffs our­selves and stand in front of the plane to prevent it from ta­king off with mi­grants to take them back to their coun­try.
Be in pos­ses­sion of a re­sident per­mit (Carte Ar­dente / Liège) to have ac­cess to all mu­ni­ci­pal ser­vices.
Give un­do­cu­men­ted mi­grants ac­cess to cer­ti­fied trai­ning.
Streng­the­ning “So­li­da­ri­ty Se­cu­ri­ty” « Sé­cu so­li­daire ».
Ease up pro­ce­du­ral re­qui­re­ments for emer­gen­cy me­di­cal care (fas­ter, fe­wer in­ter­me­dia­ries) i.
In or­der for people wi­thout pa­pers to make ends meet, we must al­low them to work.

Mu­ni­ci­pal of­fi­cials

As a town re­pre­sen­ta­tive, I pro­pose so­cial pro­jects to streng­then peo­ple’s ties : I in­tend to take the ini­tia­tive for res­pon­sible so­cial pro­jects.
1) A tour of my Mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ty with its main tou­rist, cultu­ral and spor­ting at­trac­tions.
2) work­shops and trai­ning on conflict re­so­lu­tion for cen­ter re­si­dents of all ages. Ob­jec­tives : lear­ning to deal with di­sa­gree­ments in a construc­tive way.
3) Set­ting up a gui­dance pro­gram to bring young people from the cen­ters and the el­der­ly in­to contact with each other.
4) Or­ga­ni­zing mee­tings in a wel­co­ming en­vi­ron­ment ai­med at get­ting to know the dif­ferent cultures present in our ci­ty. With mu­sic, dance, co­oking, craft ac­ti­vi­ties… Ta­king the time to­ge­ther to get to know each other.
5) A vi­sit to the town hall, the OCMW, child­care, ser­vice hou­sing for all new re­si­dents of the ci­ty, in­clu­ding the new re­si­dents of the cen­ters.
6) Spor­ting, cultu­ral and other ac­ti­vi­ties, where re­si­dents and mi­grants can get to know each other.
7) Wel­come and in­for­ma­tion mee­tings for new­co­mers once or twice a year, where they are of­fe­red in­te­gra­tion op­por­tu­ni­ties wi­thin the va­rious as­so­cia­tions of the mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ty.
8) As a mu­ni­ci­pal re­pre­sen­ta­tive, I hope that my com­mu­ni­ty can pro­vide shel­ter free­ly and re­ceive the re­sources from the fe­de­ral go­vern­ment to make this hap­pen.
9) Connec­ting ex­tracur­ri­cu­lar ac­ti­vi­ties for chil­dren and mee­tings for re­si­dents to par­ti­ci­pate in ac­ti­vi­ties of cultu­ral as­so­cia­tions from the mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ty.
I pro­pose fi­nan­cing at the fe­de­ral le­vel, and the or­ga­ni­za­tion of the re­cep­tion of mi­grants at lo­cal le­vel, long-term, clear­ly agreed and as­su­red, and above all that our coun­try, a rich coun­try af­ter all, de­mons­trates exem­pla­ry res­pon­si­bi­li­ty ac­cor­ding to its po­si­tion, his­to­ry, and sense of hu­ma­ni­ta­rian du­ty. That asy­lum see­kers are trea­ted hu­ma­ne­ly, with res­pect for their rights.
Ci­ties and mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ties dis­tri­bute shel­ters for mi­grants and “ho­me­less” to un­lock hu­man and bro­ther­ly mea­sures (wi­thout ghet­toi­za­tion in fa­vor of in­te­gra­tion and in­clu­si­vi­ty. Uto­pia ?
I ful­ly in­tend to re­no­vate va­cant pu­blic buil­dings to make hou­sing more ac­ces­sible, as soon as I have a po­li­ti­cal ma­jo­ri­ty to do so.
I wish that my com­mu­ni­ty would al­so be hos­pi­table ! Want to real­ly wel­come people and es­ca­late the of­fer to the fe­de­ral go­vern­ment.
Bel­gium must ful­fill its com­mit­ments ! That is no­thing more than just doing our job and ful­filling our Hu­man Rights’ obli­ga­tions !
A new re­gu­la­ri­za­tion cam­pai­gn for people wi­thout pa­pers.
Hou­sing must be sup­por­ted by mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ties and pro­vinces, which must be al­lo­ca­ted the fi­nan­cial re­sources for this.
Figh­ting slum­lords !
Make more homes avai­lable.
Pro­mote cultu­ral di­ver­si­ty through in­ter­cul­tu­ral fes­ti­vals.
In­tro­duce at last a re­sident per­mit such as the Carte Ar­dente in liège. It is re­com­men­ded to re­gis­ter and pro­cess com­plaints from people wi­thout pa­pers : in­tro­duc­tion of a “Hos­pi­table Com­mu­ni­ty” la­bel.
Re­gu­la­ri­za­tion now for eve­ryone, and clear cri­te­ria.
There is an ab­so­lute need for a per­ma­nent re­gu­la­ri­za­tion com­mit­tee, in­de­pendent and with clear and per­ma­nent cri­te­ria.
Draw up an in­ven­to­ry of buil­dings sui­table for hou­sing mi­grants and set up struc­tures (ar­chi­tect, site ma­na­ger) to help mi­grants re­no­vate those places (in­su­la­tion, etc.), in ex­change for an in­te­gra­tion in­come for these people.
This could al­so even­tual­ly create teams trai­ned to re­no­vate other homes as part of cli­mate ac­tion.
En­sure di­gni­fied li­ving condi­tions in the coun­try of ori­gin (of mi­grants). Pay a fair price for their la­bor and raw ma­te­rials.

I hope that these ini­tia­tives serve as an example of the wealth of cultures that po­pu­late Bel­gium : long live in­ter­cul­tu­ra­li­ty !