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Conditions worsen for homeless refugees in Brussels

Jerome Hughes
Press TV, Brussels

Discarded food along with human waste surround people sleeping on the street outside Belgium's largest asylum application center at Le Petit Château in Brussels. It is the first day of August at 7 a.m. and families with young children wait outside for the facility to open its doors.

As was highlighted by Press TV three weeks ago, these desperate people are mainly from Afghanistan and African nations.

Nighttime temperatures in Belgium at present are roughly late teens, early twenties degrees Celsius. So, of course, you can survive. But, for example, it did rain last night and so the conditions here are appalling. And it will not be long before temperatures begin to drop.

It is a different story for Ukrainian refugees. These are the scenes at a nearby processing center for them. The EU says there is no limit on the number who can enter the 27-nation bloc. They are guaranteed housing, schooling for children and social welfare payments. We raised this apparent discrimination with the European Commission during an online press conference.

The EU can coordinate a response to a refugee crisis when it wants to, but it seems unable or unwilling to do it for other people.

But rights groups say the pictures speak for themselves. This situation breaks EU and international humanitarian laws. 


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