Like other places in Europe, Brussels saw a large influx of asylum seekers in 2015. The Office des Etrangers, based near the Gare du Nord station, was responsible for their registration, and had capacity of just 250 registrations per weekday. Every day, however, more than 300 new applicants arrived, men, women and children, hoping to finalize their registration the same day to gain access to the covered centers for asylum seekers the number of places in these centers soon proved to be insufficient.
New arrivals settled in a makeshift camp in nearby Parc Maximilien and depended on the help of the Red Cross, Médecins du Monde and the Citizens' Platform for Refugee Aid, made up of volunteers. This meager show of solidarity was evidence of the fact that 7 out of 10 Belgians thought the country took in too many migrants.
© Daniel Botelho
