Respect for human rights by Belgium still problematic according to Amnesty
(Belga) Amnesty International considers that a great deal of progress must be made in terms of respect for human rights by Belgium, the NGO said on Tuesday in particular on the occasion of the publication of its annual report on the situation of human rights throughout the world.
The rights of migrants, particularly those in an irregular situation, remain problematic in Belgium for Amnesty. “The approximately 150,000 migrants in an irregular situation in Belgium were exposed to ill-treatment and discrimination in their work in the informal economy, as well as in their access to housing, health, education and justice. “, specifies the NGO, based on the findings of the United Nations special rapporteurs. The organization also insists on the crisis in the management of the reception of asylum seekers, which forced dozens of them to sleep on the streets during the last months of 2021, because the number of demand exceeded capacity. Other issues raised by Amnesty include ethnic profiling, police violence, but also overcrowding in prisons and the transfer of arms to countries at risk of using them to commit serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law. On the international scene, the NGO details that in 2021, “rich countries have joined forces with big business to fool people”. “These states, alongside multinational corporations, have actually worsened global inequalities,” Amnesty insists. The latter points out that rich countries “need more doses of vaccine than necessary, while turning a blind eye when big pharma has put profits before people by refusing to share their technologies to accelerate the distribution of vaccines”. (Belgian)