Lack of Cooperation

On the 27th of March 2016 a demonstration was held in which many citizens of Brussels sought the protection of  basic human rights, especially those  regarding refugees.
 They are escaping from war, persecution and starvation. However, Europe does not put enough effort towards safeguarding  their rights. This demonstration saw the participation of more than 3,000 people coming from every corner of the city and from different social classes, parties and cultural background. Everyone gathered around this event in order to provide strong support to the refugees.

This event was promoted by both citizens and organisations such as Plateforme citoyenne de soutien aux refugiés, Solidarity4all and with the support of CIRE, Médecins Sans Frontières,  Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Oxfam-Solidarité and other associations. 
It began at 14:00 at Gare du Nord ( Brussels ) and finished around 18:00 at the same place. It was a very significant, peaceful and productive demonstration.

Although there were many representatives from different associations, organisations and parties – reunited to address this problem – their cooperation seemed far from being always without tensions. 
This statement has been confirmed after interviewing people who work for several organisations and associations in the Parc Maximilien. The result of these surveys is interesting: there are no evidences of a real cooperation. 
One association had the  idea of building a kitchen that could provide hot meal to the refugees settled at the park waiting to be registered at the city council. Another one decided afterwards to join the project in order to help realising this idea. At this point we can start tracking the first problems.

Some delegates from the European Parliament came to see the critical situation  at the park. During a meeting with some representatives of the organisations and associations involved in this idea, the second NGO claimed the project of the construction of the kitchen for itself, thus pushing the first one out of their own idea.

The Red Cross opened their doors to the refugees but problems arose when  doors were closed down during the night for security reasons till 8:00 AM. Therefore, many refugees could not go to the Immigration Office as the queue to get to this office began at 3:00 AM leaving no possibility for them to seek both an accommodation and the necessary legal papers.

There was also an apparent lack of cooperation between the State and the associations involved because some proposals were made to the Brussels City Hall in order to keep the situation under control but it did not lead to any significant results. We can find evidence of that in the words spoken by the Mayor of Brussels, Yvan Mayeur, to this deadlock situation: “We can’t do anything because we’re waiting for a solution coming from the State secretary”.

This lack of cooperation might be the direct consequence of interests traceable behind this project. Every person, party and organisation involved seemed to have sought sometimes their own interests and benefits rather than what they publicly stated. Therefore, it can be concluded that the price of this lack of cooperation has been paid only by the refugees – who were supposed to be the beneficiary of the project.

Szymanski Mateusz

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