The 23-year-old woman and her two children have been in the Kurdish camp of Al-Roj since February 2018 and want to return to Belgium. « According to the court, the children have the subjective right to protection by the Belgian state — mother and children have the right to be protected against inhuman and degrading treatment and they have the right to consular protection from the Belgian state,” Cohen said.

Recently, also the US ambassador in Brussels, Ronald Gidwitz, expressed himself on the topic. The diplomat stated that Belgium « must repatriate » its 50 terror fighters from Syria, for »security reasons ».

On the other hand, Sophie Wilmès announced that Belgium does not intend to repatriate the Belgian jihadists, freed from Kurdish prisons following the Turkish offensive in Syria. The MP Georges Dallemagne thinks this is a mistake. « The United States is right, we must repatriate the jihadists […] I think the ambassador is right. The question of repatriation is not humanitarian, it is a question of security », said to LN24.

« The Prime Minister repeats what has always been said, that the Belgian jihadists must be judged as close to the place where they committed their crimes, but we know that it is not possible. I spoke with Kurds, who told me ‘we have already fought on the ground, captured, detained your nationals. We do not intend to keep them for years, why should this threat affect our population? ».

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Helping people in need

Are you ready to clean out your closet? —You must have a lot of clothes that you don’t wear anymore, and you might be looking to revamp your wardrobe. While you are in the process of cleaning out your closet you are probably wondering what to do with all that clothes. Before throwing it in the trash—consider donating them!

Even though you might be tired of wearing those clothes, We can guarantee you that someone else will be happy to wear them a second life by giving it to refugees that need them. Your donations will make a difference, while if you decide to throw them away, you lose the chance of teaching those who need them the most.

This time in addition to clothes, we’re you can also donate powdered milk or Food Supplements as well as baby and adult dipers for the great amount of babies living there, or crutches as they could be of great use for the people in the centers.

It is very easy, just make a request to the CLOTHESUP project through any of our social media or contact this number +32 471 07 80 86. Once you make the request our team will pick up donations and any place of your convenience. You can also bring the donations to our office: Rue de Progrès 231

If you wish to make a monetary donation to help us cover the 5200 Euro cost to transport and distribute the container, do a money transfer to our account:

CBC Bank: BE42 7320 3907 1954

What DO we accept?

• Any sort of clothes, both for winter and summer seasons, mainly for women and children, but also for men
• Underwear
• Bed sheets and blankets
• Shoes and socks
• Gloves, scarfs
• Soft or plush toys, and (books) children books, new notebooks, books that have not been written in

What do we NOT accept? 

• Torn or dirty clothing items
• Furniture
• Electronic devices
• Plastic toys and toys with battery or functioning with electricity

If you’d like to donate these types of items, consider bringing them to your local Les Petits Riens.

For those lining in Waterloo Wavre Louvain la-Neuve. And nearby you can also drop your donations at VitàNet Sprl, Grand’Route 236, 1428 Lillois.

Read more about SB OverSeas and make a request for pick up!

The post Give care show care: New campaign to send 25 tons of clothes to refugee camps at the Turkish border appeared first on Brussels Express.

President Erdogan of Turkey unilaterally invaded northern Syria last week in a colonial grab for land, power and control of oil and gas resources following the withdrawal of US Forces from the area.

A key strategic objective of Turkey is to close down the existing border crossing between Syria and the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, and build a new crossing between Turkey and Iraq that will be under Turkish control. But with the aggression comes a sinister element of ethnic cleansing against Kurdish people.

The ethnic Syrian Kurds currently defending the residents in Northern Syria are the YPG (the Unit Protecting the People). Erdogan brands their troops as terrorists, when in fact they are forces that have fought alongside NATO allies to defeat IS. The disloyalty shown by the USA to their former allies has exposed them to unexpected attack from another NATO member, Turkey. Syrian Kurds are treated as stateless by Syria and have hitherto sought to oppose the Assad regime, but the betrayal by NATO caused by the US-Turkey stitch-up has left them with no alternative but to reach out to Assad and to Russia, calling on the Syrian Army to defend the frontier against invasion, whilst they concentrate their efforts on defending civilians.

It is not clear what motivated this erratic foreign policy move by the USA, but for certain the only beneficiaries will be Russia and President Assad.

Collateral damage caused by the unprovoked war instigated by the Turks will be the weakening of YPG defences in Syria and the inevitable escape of IS prisoners of war and their families to restart their terrorist operations against the West.

In the neighbouring Region of Kurdistan (KRG) in Iraq, they are bracing themselves for a wave of up to 250 000 refugees from this new theatre of war. KRG is already home to some 350 000 Kurdish refugees from the war in Syria, and a further 1.5 million Sunni Arab IDPs from previous conflict with IS in Iraq. Crisis centres have been activated and local NGOs are mobilised, but the reality is that this region is heavily stretched and starved of budget to deal with an emergency of such a scale. They are doing their best to provide camps with shelter, clean water, and the provision of health and education services for the existing refugee and IDP population but they will struggle to deal with these extra numbers without help.

If Europe is to avoid another refugee migrant crisis this winter, it is important to take urgent measures to:

a) call a permanent halt to Turkey’s military 
aggression against Syria and Syrian Kurds;

b) find a peaceful solution to the current conflict, 
 which is in everybody’s interest;

c) involve the Syrian Kurds in consultation about 
 the redesign of the Syrian constitution that 
 enfranchises them and gives them a fair say in 
 their future;

d) urge Turkey to review and improve its treatment 
 of its own Kurdish minority.

e) call for international efforts to increase the 
 resources needed to look after refugees in Iraq, 
Syria and the KRG – it is in the West’s interest 
 that the refugee crisis is dealt with as closely as 
 possible to the original homes of the innocent 
 victims – otherwise the migrant crisis that 
 Europe faced two years ago will be repeated.

The situation calls for the appointment of a Special Envoy either by the EU or by the UN who should be tasked to secure a peaceful solution to the current crisis, such as perhaps the negotiator Melhem Riachy, the former communications minister from the Lebanese Forces party, who helped to reconcile seemingly intractable differences and bring opposite parties together to resolve conflict in Lebanon. This style of intervention of parachuting in an impartial and experienced third party negotiator could be a useful component in unlocking the prolonged regional crisis in Northern Syria.

The post Special Envoy needed to unblock the Turkey-Syria Conflict
 appeared first on Brussels Express.

In the upcoming months, Belgium will lead the negotiations within the Security Council on how to deal with children’s rights violations in Myanmar, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Central African Republic.

The fight against impunity has been one of Belgium’s longstanding foreign policy priorities. The Belgian presidency of the Working Group on Children and Armed Conflicts is an illustration of this engagement. Belgium has taken a leading role in the fight against the children’s rights violations in armed conflicts, also outside of the Security Council, and is engaged on several fronts.

Over the past few years, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders has organized several events on children and armed conflicts in Brussels and in New York. He also participated regularly in debates on this issue. Besides our strong political engagement within the international fora, Belgium also contributes operationally on the ground. Our country contributes to the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) for example, which collects information on the children’s rights violations in armed conflicts. Shedding light on such violations and unmasking their perpetrators are crucial steps to tackle this problem.

Belgium supports the role of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflicts, Mrs Virginia Gamba. The close collaboration with her office promotes continuous attention for this issue and contributes to the effective protection of children in armed conflicts.

Belgium is also a member of a group of like-minded countries that fight against the violations of children’s rights in armed conflicts. In Geneva (Switzerland), our country co-presides this group. Also within the EU and NATO, Belgium is dedicated to this cause.

More than 20 years after the Machel report on the impact of armed conflicts on children, attention and action remain essential. Tens of thousands of children suffer from the direct negative impact of armed conflicts on a daily basis. Their involvement in those conflicts is however not inevitable. They get involved in wars caused by conscious or unconscious decisions made by adults. We can combat the abuse and exploitation of children in armed conflicts by continuous action and sustained political pressure. Belgium remains fully engaged on that front.

The post Under Belgian impulse, the Security Council shows unity in the fight against children’s rights violations in Syria appeared first on Brussels Express.

Since the launch at the beginning of the year, the CLOTHESUP project of SB OverSeas has been picking up clothing donations from all around Brussels.

Our pick up team has been busy at work: they collected clothes from households and business in Sint-Pieters, Leeuw, Laken, Forest. Uccle and Jette. The week before, we collected from our partners, the Brussels School of International Studies in Etterbeek as well as the De Palaver Community centre  in Denderleeuw.

This spring 2019, SB OverSeas and our partners have secured a 25-ton container to fill, but we have to collect that many donations by April 20. So far, in two months we’ve collected from 40 companies and individuals, of top of many drop offs at our office every day. 

In order to meet the goal of filling the container, SB OverSeas has expanded its clothing aid project to now being able to PICK UP donations directly from your DOOR. As an important member of your local community, you or your business can help us in collecting donation items for refugees in Lebanon and Turkey from your communities.

The only thing you have to do is make a request through the CLOTHESUP project and we will pick up the clothes in any place at your convenience. Therefore, if you have 5-6 bags (60 litre size) and you want to donate, with any type of shoes and clothes which are in a good condition.

What DO we accept?

Any sort of clothes, both for winter and summer seasons, mainly for women and children, but
Bed sheets and blankets
Shoes and socks
Gloves, scarfs
Soft or plush toys

What do we NOT accept? 

Torn or dirty clothing items
Furniture
Electronic devices
Plastic toys and toys with battery or functioning with electricity

If you’d like to donate these types of items, consider bringing them to your local Les Petits Riens.

Giving clothes a second life

This is not only a way of providing people in need with clothes, but it is also a way of helping the environment by recycling your unused clothes. When you donate your clothes, you are saving the environment from a lot of harm. According to the EPA, it costs $45 on average per ton to dispose of waste in a landfill. Clothing that sits in landfill releases toxic greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the environment when they break down. Lastly, making new clothes takes hundreds of gallons of water, and the production of new textiles accounts for 10% of all carbon emissions on the planet. All these things can be avoided if you donate your clothes for reuse.

Helping people in need

So, you’re ready to clean out your closet—you have a lot of clothes that you don’t wear anymore, and you’re ready to revamp your wardrobe. While you’re doing that, you’re probably wondering what you’re going to do with all the old clothes. Before you throw them in the trash, consider donating them. Even though you don’t want your old clothes anymore, it’s almost guaranteed that someone else will. There are many people in need of usable clothing, and children in need of clothing, and your donations can help. When you throw away your clothes, they have no chance of reaching people who need them the most.

A central part of SB OverSeas’ activities is emergency aid in the form of the distribution of basic necessities. Clothing and other vital goods are frequently collected all over Europe to be shipped to Lebanon and Turkey, where they are distributed to Syrian refugee communities by our SB OverSeas team on the ground.

Read more about SB OverSeas and make a request for pick up

The post Help us send 25 tons of clothing donations to Lebanon appeared first on Brussels Express.

The post Belgium pledges 24,3 million euros for humanitarian aid in Syria and the region appeared first on Brussels Express.

In the case of young refugees that arrive to Belgium, this is a task encountered on a daily basis.

In their first month in Belgium, young refugees live in Centers of Orientation and Observation, with sometimes up to 60 other adolescent youth. This is the case at the Fedasil Centre in Woluwe Saint-Pierre (WSP), where SB Espoir does activities several weekends a month. Each month, the. volunteers get to know a new group of youth; but for the youth, every day they are meeting new people who have arrived at the centre, and saying goodbye to ones that have to leave.

Earlier this month SB Espoir teamed up Palhik Mana vzw, a Brussels-based non-profit organisation that promotes bridging divides through improvisational workshops. Sarah Avci, the director at Palhik Mana, led a group of youth at WSP in an exercise workshop Playback Theatre to build connections and breakdown barriers.

The first barrier—learning someone’s name.

Particularly when names seem difficult to pronounce, it’s very easy to not make the effort to remember someone’s name. Sarah led the youth in a game where it was imperative to remember names. Using a ball of yarn, each person tied a piece to their finger and passed it to another person, saying their name each time. When everyone’s name had been said, the group was connected with the yarn, creating a beautiful spiderweb between them.

Palhik Mana works with communities around Brussels and abroad and uses their improvisational technique of “playback theatre” to encourage a dialogue between generations, cultures and other groups. While the youth at the centre has a lot in common, they come from different countries, cultures, backgrounds. Bridging this gap between them is a way to find comfort in a new environment. This was our goal.

As one of the youth reflected, not many of the youth knew each other’s names—but they did by the end of the game.

What this activity taught the youth is that while language often seems like an unsurmountable barrier, two people who do not speak a common language are still able to communicate. Through following positive energy, building on mutual respect and understanding people’s humanity.

Want to be part of this experience? Join SB Espoir: https://sboverseas.org/volunteer/brussels/

The post Improv games in Belgium empower refugee youth and builds bonds appeared first on Brussels Express.

Amara lives in the Saida shelter in Lebanon and she was a star student in SB OverSeas’ classes, until she no longer could come to school. She got married, pregnant, had a miscarriage and got pregnant again and had baby Amina.

But she was just 13 years old.

Read her story as told through the words and illustrations of our incredible storyteller, Félix Brassier.

Each time Félix brings another story to life through his illustrations, I get to the last page and can’t help but to have the shocking realisation that the story I’ve just read is not just a story but a young girl’s life. In this iteration in particular, the last point– that Amara’s little sister was about to go through the same traumatic journey.

At the end of last year, the attempted suicide of a 16-year-old girl in Arsal, Lebanon who was forced to marry her cousin when she was just 14 highlighted the harrowing effects of early marriage. Human rights organisations have renewed their call to the Lebanese parliament to pass a law regulating marriages to a minimum age of 18, a change from the current minimum of 15 years old.

But it’s a complicated situation.

For many Syrian families living in refugee camps, marrying their daughter means one less mouth to feed or what they hope will be a better future for her. As we see in the case of Amara’s family, the struggle she faced doesn’t deter her family away from marriage for her little sister.

‘Just Married’: Amara’s Story

‘Just Married’: Amara’s Story

The post A vicious cycle: Early marriage for young Syrian refugee girls appeared first on Brussels Express.

Our storyteller, audiovisual artist Félix Brassier and creator of the series shares his thoughts:

« The story of Mervat is one out of the thousands of life stories we face regularly. Through her fight for freedom, safety and recognition, Mervat have given much more than an example, she has proven that even in the worse conditions women can still find a way out to live their dreams. I focused on the universality of her story which is for me, a strong and powerful message to give to girls all over the world. Even with all its sadness and sorrow, I wanted to emphasize on how resilient and strong girls have to be, that’s why I choose to have a more colorful story which is also illustrating Mervat’s creations. »

« Just Married »: Mervat’s Story

« Just Married »: Mervat’s Story

SB OverSeas is an NGO that organizes education, empowerment and emergency aid projects in Lebanon and Brussels to give hope and opportunity to those whose lives have been torn apart by conflict. Learn more about our projects and how to get involved: sboverseas.org 

The post The resilience of a Syrian refugee child bride appeared first on Brussels Express.

But not all migrants are the same. We’re each constrained by borders, visas and other regulations set by the country that we choose to resettle in. Some of us in a less strict manner than others. We all move for different reasons, some more severe than others—but at the end of the day all migrants want (and I include myself in this) is a good life and opportunities for a good future.

At SB OverSeas, we work to better the lives of those who move because they had no other choice, and who have strict regulations placed on them because of it—refugees and asylum seekers in Belgium and Lebanon.

In both those countries, the future of children and young refugees in particular is grounded in their ability to access education.

In the case of Belgium, a young refugee who has arrived alone to the country has to prove his or her age, that he or she is under the age of 18 to be given temporary protection and access to education (primarily language learning) until they turn 18. About 60 percent of the young refugees in Belgium are 16 or 17 years old, meaning that they will be sheltered and be guaranteed education for only one or two years, until they turn 18. With SB Espoir, we work with three of the accommodation sites for these primarily (only 14% are girls) teenage boys, where we work with FEDASIL and the Red Cross to do activities and skills-building workshop, exposing them to potentially new concepts and the wider Brussels community.

Here’s the paradox- this group is considered of the most protected of the asylum-seekers in Belgium because of the EU-wide imperative to protect children, but it all comes to a halt on their 18^th birthday. This is why the SB Espoir project works to create connections and build a network for the youth in Brussels, a kind of investment in their future that’s beyond formal education.

In Lebanon, resource constraints has limited placements of formal education for Syrian refugee children; SB OverSeas’ non-formal catch up schools in Arsal, Beirut and Saida serve as one of the only alternatives for children who don’t speak English or French yet, are older than 14 years or just haven’t been able to get into the public schools. A recent report by SB OverSeas’ team in Lebanon stated:

“Although the number of enrollments and spaces in classrooms have increased every year of the crisis in Syria, still a significant number of parents find themselves obliged to say, ‘our children are growing up without an education.’ An estimated 36 percent of those aged 6 to 14 remain out of school, meaning they do not access to formal education.”

As a self-identified nerd and lover of school, it breaks my heart to think about the “lost generation” of children and young people who suffered conflict in their home, have fled to find protection, but are still unable to go back to school. It’s again a paradox: I (and many others) migrate to go to school, but many migrant and because they have migrated they cannot.

Read the full report from SB OverSeas on access to education for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon.

The post Today is International Migrants’ Day but who is a migrant? appeared first on Brussels Express.