De Wever’s special status for migrants rejected by other parties

Coalition party CD&V have joined with federal opposition parties in rejecting a proposal by Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever to create a special social status for refugees. At present, a refugee granted asylum is entitled to income support, priority social housing and child allowance. 

“That’s hard to justify to people who have been contributing to the system all their lives,” De Wever said. “So I think a separate social status is something that needs to be considered.”  According to De Wever, who launched the idea in an interview with the VRT programme Terzake, the current situation plays a role in the refugees’ decision to come to Belgium. 

Groen responded immediately with the accusation that De Wever, also president of N-VA, sought to create a new kind of second-class citizen. “He is putting everything we learned from the humanitarian crisis following the Second World War in jeopardy,” said party member Wouter De Vriendt. “That includes European co-operation on the basis of free movement, and the way we approach the matter of war refugees.” 

CD&V member of parliament Nahima Lanjri also spoke out on the issue. “We are clearly saying no to any system of first- and second-class citizens,” she said. “We are in favour of a strict but humane asylum policy. If people have to flee their homes … and we find that they were indeed not safe and recognise their status as refugees, then we have to take them into our society as fully-fledged citizens.”

Gwendolyn Rutten, president of Open VLD, had a more nuanced response. “It makes no sense to imagine that there are no limits … Our social security was never intended to cope with major migration and refugee streams. We need to find a better approach than to naively hand over money and think our conscience is thereby clear.”

Photo: Francois Lenoir/Reuters/Corbis