Since Monday of last week, Luxembourg doesn’t provide accommodation for newly arriving single male asylum seekers anymore. On Local Matters this week, we follow up on the situation and see on which solutions the actors in the field have been working.
Most of those who now sleep in Luxembourg’s streets have already requested asylum in another EU country. Therefore, the ministry of foreign affairs puts them on a waiting list instead of providing accommodation. The refugee shelters have nearly reached their capacity limits, and the ministry prefers to keep spaces for women and children who are more vulnerable, minister Jean Asselborn said in a press release. According to the refugee rights lawyer association Passerell however, Luxembourg is legally obliged to provide accommodation to all those who say that they want to ask for asylum here. The Luxembourg Refugee Council LFR invited to a press conference on Tuesday to show how drastic the situation is. Images show people sleeping under a bridge and putting their tents up in the park. 27 men are currently waiting for a bed in the shelters. More are likely to come in the next weeks.
The past week, all associations working with refugees or marginalized people have searched for solutions. I asked Nonna Sehovic of Caritas why they wouldn’t open the Wanteraktioun a few weeks early, the night shelter for homeless people at Findel which is only open in winter and due to open on 15 november. She says: “Additionally to the people who come now and want to request international protection, we have people who live in Luxembourg in extremely precarious situations. They need a place to stay in winter. If we give access to these shelters to asylum seekers, we would have to put even more pressure on the situation which is already tense. Every year we have more marginalized people who live under precarious conditions in the streets. The shelters have reached their capacities.”
Many of the young men don’t sleep under the bridge anymore since Wednesday. An unknown person paid for hostel beds. For maximum three weeks, the asylum seekers have a warm bed.
But this solution is only temporary, and limited in scope. For those lucky ones who now have a bed, it might be enough. According to the ministry of foreign affairs, 600 additional beds will be available from the end of November on. The hall 7 at LuxExpo was due to open on 1 December. Asselborn in a press release said he managed to negotiate to at least get it to open a few days earlier. A second building with 55 additional beds is scheduled to open in January. Asselborn as well said he pushed several administrations to work together on a feasibility study for the creation of a totally new shelter or the reuse of existing buildings.
For the National Refugee Council, this is not enough. In the past weeks, the LFR has sent a letter to the CSV’s Luc Frieden who is in charge of forming the new government coalition. But they haven’t received a response. The CSV and the DP who are currently negotiating the conditions of the new coalition have invited non-profits and other organisations on other topics – but not in questions of immigration and asylum. The LFR has pledged to keep the pressure up, to eventually get a seat on the discussion table with government and communes.
Photo: LFR