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BRUSSELS (AP) — Some refugees and asylum-seekers in Brussels have been spending months in between the Avenue of Palaces and the Small Fortress — fairly actually.

Sadly, it’s not a dream come true on the finish of their fearful flight from midway throughout the globe. It’s a perpetual nightmare.

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Petit Chateau, which suggests small citadel, is a authorities reception heart that always does something however welcome arrivals. The Rue des Palais — avenue of palaces — has the town’s worst squat, the place the scent of urine and the prevalence of scurvy have come to represent how the European Union’s migration coverage is failing.

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They’re solely 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) from the glossy Europa Constructing the place EU leaders will maintain a two-day summit beginning Thursday to take care of migration points which have vexed the 27 member nations for greater than a decade.

Shinwari, an Afghan military captain who lengthy helped Western powers attempt to stave off the Taliban, now lives in a makeshift tent camp proper on the canal reverse Petit Chateau.

It’s a spot as desolate as it’s hopeless.

“It is vitally chilly. Some guys have completely different illnesses and many people are affected by despair, as a result of we don’t know what is going to occur tomorrow,” mentioned the 31-year-old, who left behind his spouse and 4 youngsters, satisfied that Taliban forces that took over in August 2021 would kill troopers like him who labored with NATO international locations.

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“They search homes. Nobody’s life was protected,” Shinwari mentioned. “They’ve already as soon as informed my household ‘your son has taken refuge in an infidel nation.’”

Even now, removed from house, he’s too scared to be recognized past his final title and with solely the vaguest army particulars. He doesn’t need his face proven in images or video, for worry the Taliban may harm his household.

Exacerbating his plight is the reception he’s been given within the rich EU — largely marked by indifference, typically even hostility.

“Sadly, nobody will get to listen to our voices,” he mentioned from his tent, surrounded by a half-dozen ex-members of the Afghan army.

As an alternative, the vocabulary of EU leaders earlier than the summit is far more about “strengthening exterior borders,” “border fences” and “return procedures” than it’s about instantly making life higher for folks like Shinwari.

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And with 330,000 unauthorized makes an attempt made to enter the EU final yr — a six-year file — projecting a heat embrace for refugees doesn’t win many elections on the continent as of late.

Many Afghans additionally look with envy on the swift measures that the EU took after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 to grant Ukrainians non permanent safety measures equivalent to residency rights, labor market entry, medical help and social welfare help — issues that every one largely go them by.

“The difficulty of Afghans and Ukrainians are the identical, however they don’t get handled the identical manner,” Shinwari mentioned. “When Ukrainians come right here, they’re supplied with all of the services … on the primary day of their arrival, however we Afghans who’ve left our nation resulting from safety threats, we don’t get something.

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“It’s shocking as a result of human rights are usually not the identical for everybody and that upsets us and makes us really feel upset and uncared for.”

EU leaders have already mentioned {that a} full breakthrough on their migration insurance policies received’t come earlier than bloc-wide elections in June 2024.

Shinwari mentioned he was fortunate to puncture the EU’s beefed up borders to make use of his proper to asylum after an eight-month trek by Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia and ultimately Belgium. It included beatings, arrest and escape in Iran, and starvation and worry alongside a lot of the path.

Shinwari made it to Europe alive, “however now that I’m right here, I’m homeless like a nomad” with a flimsy blue tent to maintain out Belgium’s many rain showers, he mentioned.

Different Afghan former troopers settled within the Rue des Palais, the place their tales of trauma, despair, medication and violence have been simply as bleak.

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“The scenario shouldn’t be good right here. If the Pink Cross brings meals, we can have one thing to eat, but when not, then many don’t have something,” mentioned Roz Amin Khan, who fled Laghman province to reach in Belgium two months in the past.

Since arriving 4 months in the past, Shinwari mentioned that he had one interview with asylum processing authorities and has been ready ever since.

The dearth of assist for many refugees has been driving nongovernmental organizations and volunteers to despair.

“Between the authorized framework and the scenario on the bottom there’s a world of distinction,” mentioned Clement Valentin, a authorized advocacy officer on the CIRE refugee basis. “There may be this hole and it’s powerful to grasp — for me and for the NGOs.

“However I can not even start to grasp how powerful it have to be for Afghans right here in Belgium, or different European nations, to grasp this.”

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The authorized sloth isn’t restricted to Belgium. The EU’s Company for Asylum mentioned in its newest traits report of November 2022 that “the hole between purposes and choices had reached the most important extent since 2015,” and was widening nonetheless. General, it mentioned, greater than 920,000 circumstances have been nonetheless pending, a 14% annual improve.

Such was the bureaucratic backlog on the Petit Chateau when Shinwari arrived, that would-be asylum-seekers needed to wait typically for days within the rain and chilly simply to get within the entrance door. Residents residing shut by introduced meals and arrange fireplace pits, as a result of the federal government didn’t act.

Even when the scenario has improved, the bodily and psychological scars are simple to see, mentioned Michel Genet, director of Medical doctors of the World Belgium.

“Individuals have been by large traumas and a really tough scenario and so they anticipate to return right here and be taken care of,” however they’re not, Genet mentioned.

Throughout many sleepless nights within the freezing chilly, with the boring buzz of passing vehicles within the background, Shinwari’s ideas drift again house.

“Generally I take into consideration the longer term, and I feel how for much longer I’ve to stay on the streets,” he mentioned. “My thoughts is surrounded with issues. I consider the security of my household and my future.”

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Comply with AP’s protection of migration points at https://apnews.com/hub/migration