Gaza students with Belgian scholarships still in limbo amid government deadlock

The Belgian academic community has said that it is "dismayed" over the government deadlock regarding 13 students and researchers from Gaza who received scholarships to study in Belgium but have not yet been permitted entry to the country.

The vice-chancellors of Belgium’s 10 universities condemned the deadlock and what it called the "disgraceful political horse-trading" surrounding their admission in an open letter, criticising the government’s lack of willingness.

“The moral compass of several coalition partners has disappeared,” the academic authorities write.

If allowed into Belgium, the 13 academics would be accommodated in student residences rather than reception centres for asylum seekers, the vice-chancellors said, and they have scholarships to cover their living costs as they undertake courses designed to meet the reconstruction needs of Gaza, to which they plan to return upon completion of their studies.

The /signatories emphasised that, beyond these individual cases, "it’s the right to education and research that is at stake".

“It is also, more fundamentally, a simple matter of humanity,” they write.

Foreign affairs minister Maxime Prévot (Les Engagés) tabled a proposal with the federal government to evacuate the academics from Gaza, but the lack of consensus is stalling the matter.

Migration minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt (N-VA) fears a "domino effect" if the students are permitted to enter the country, and foreign secretary Maxime Prévot (Les Engagés) wanted to link the issue to a potential deal on the deportation to Afghanistan of people residing illegally in Belgium, and on "return hubs" outside the EU.

The 10 signatories of the open letter say the candidates from Gaza, selected "on the basis of their academic merits", cannot be treated as "either a bargaining chip or a variable to be adjusted in political debates on migration".

The universities say the obstacles put forward to refuse their entry are "unfounded", noting that the requirement to submit a visa application in person is practically impossible to fulfil and is contrary to a ruling on 18 April 2023 by the Court of Justice of the European Union, and that several other EU member states have demonstrated that such an evacuation could be organised.