News | Families received in emergency accommodation
Families of asylum seekers are temporarily accommodated in a youth hostel.
Despite a record capacity of more than 34,200 places, the Fedasil network is saturated. Fedasil does not have enough places to directly accommodate every person who applies for asylum in Belgium. In the absence of places in the regular reception network, several families of asylum seekers have been sent to youth hostels since 12 September.
The reception in a youth hostel is intended to provide shelter for a short period (a few days) until a place is found in Fedasil’s regular network. It will always be temporary accommodation, for families only.
Single men
As a reminder, unlike families and single women, single men who apply for protection are no longer directly accommodated. The Belgian government has decided to temporarily suspend the reception of single men. They are be invited to register on a waiting list.
Currently, more than 2,100 single men are on the waiting list for a reception place. Several of them are accommodated in the emergency reception network set up in Brussels as part of an agreement between the regional and federal authorities.
Fedasil and the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration continue to take various measures to increase the reception capacity and to speed up departures from centres. Avenues for new reception centres are under constant review.