NATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS

BELGIUM

Belgian refugee camp in Brussels’ city centre

On Wednesday 18 November, a refugee camp was set up in the city centre, as a temporary measure as the Belgian government failed to provide accommodation for more than a 1000 asylum seekers. The NGO’s involved were CIRE, Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen, Caritas International, Médecins Sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde.

On Friday 20 November, the Belgian Council of Ministers introduced measures to try to resolve the asylum seekers’ reception crisis. 420 accommodation places should be freed in the coming days. The NGO’s welcomed the measures considering them “a step forward” while warning that the reception problems will still need a structural answer. On Monday 23 November, the NGO’s decided to close the refugee camp down as they feared that the tensions rising between the asylum seekers and the police would lead to confrontations. During the 5 days of existence of the camp 250 persons were given shelter and medical assistance.

Source: medecinsdumonde.be

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DENMARK

Doctors providing medical assistance to failed asylum seekers under pressure

The Danish Christian Doctors Association announced that its annual congress had decided that the organisation would continue to provide medical assistance to failed Iraqi asylum seekers, even though this is prohibited under Danish law. At the same time, the governing Liberal Party has requested the Minister of Justice to determine whether the group Kirkeasyl (“Church Asylum”) is violating Danish law and “abusing” public funds by assisting failed Iraqi asylum seekers. Source: Picum newsletter, November 2009 and kirkeasyl.dk.

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GERMANY

On 24 November, the social-democrat party (SPD) introduced a law proposal to modify the Aliens act, on the one hand to extend further the prohibition to denounce undocumented migrants (see HUMA network newsletter of September 2009): obligation to denounce would be limited to forces of law and order; and on the other hand, in case of assistance to undocumented migrants, to limit sanctions to those persons who where assisting for financial gain. The short discussion that took place on 26 November showed that this proposal is not likely to be adopted during the current legislature.

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NETHERLANDS

Access to health care for undocumented migrants: report updated

NIVEL (for Nederlands instituut voor onderzoek van de gezondheidszorg, or ‘Netherlands Institute for Health Care Research’) has published an update of its ongoing research on access to health care for undocumented migrants in the Netherlands. NIVEL asked health care providers what changes they anticipated as a result of the new rules for the financing of assistance to undocumented migrants, which came into effect in January 2009. While most care providers appeared to have become more willing to assist the undocumented, general practitioners received a disproportionate number of undocumented patients. The full report, titled “Toegankelijkheid van gezondheidszorg voor 'illegalen' in Nederland: een update”, is available here. Source: Picum newsletter, November 2009.

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