Immigration Office answers questions on new Nazareth return centre
The Immigration Office is holding a public information session about the European return centre being set up in the former Van der Valk hotel on the E17 at Nazareth-De Pinte. It takes place on Thursday 27 August at 19:30 in the small sports hall at Drapstraat 76 in Nazareth, with parking at the sports site. Registration in advance is required. Residents of Nazareth-De Pinte, Deinze and Sint-Martens-Latem are invited.
What the centre actually is matters more than the argument around it. It will hold around 300 people and it is not a general reception centre. It will take in applicants for international protection for whom the Immigration Office has determined that another EU member state is probably responsible for handling their file. Residents stay there while the responsible member state is being established and any transfer is arranged, under the European asylum and migration management rules. The stay is temporary and its length depends on the individual file; at the comparable centre in Zaventem the average is 41 days.
The centre is expected to open in the autumn, once the building work and the hiring are complete. The Immigration Office is recruiting around fifty staff for it, including multifunctional centre assistants, coordinators, social workers, maintenance staff, drivers and administrative personnel, and has published the profiles it is looking for.
The announcement in July drew a strong local reaction and petitions against the project have been circulating. The hotel itself closes this month, though the restaurant stays open.
If this touches you directly, the practical point is the procedure rather than the building. Being placed in a centre of this kind means the Immigration Office believes another EU country is responsible for your asylum claim. It is not a decision on whether you need protection. That determination can be challenged, and the moment to get legal advice is before a transfer is arranged, not after. If you are in a procedure now and are not sure which country is handling your file, ask your lawyer to confirm it in writing.