"Stop pushing! If you can’t queue calmly, I won’t let anyone enter," shouts a volunteer with French medical charity Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans frontières, or MSF). She’s speaking to the 20 or so migrants who are shoving each other in front of Brussels’ “humanitarian hub”, located inside the Brussels-North railway station.

"He’s the one pushing; he’s trying to get in front of everyone,” says a man who is locked in an elbow war with the man to his right.

It’s 1 pm, the normal opening time for this relief centre. However, on normal days, there is no commotion like today, volunteers explain.

"It’s the first time that people are fighting to get in, but you have to understand that they are at their wits’ end. They don’t have a future. No one has been able to get to England from Belgium and the freezing weather is hard on them,” says the receptionist, who is from the French medical charity Médecins du Monde (MdM).

Calm has been restored to the queue and, a few minutes later, the first people are able to enter the waiting room. By 1:30 pm, the room is full. It won’t empty out until the hub closes at 5 pm. Each visitor waits patiently to be called by the volunteers. They stand with their eyes glued to their cellphones, taking advantage of the free wifi to check messages and the electrical plugs to charge their devices.

The people standing in this waiting room have tired faces and expressions of sorrow and suffering. Their bodies bear the scars of a daily existence marked by violence.

Between 150 and 200 people a day

Several different organizations (including MSF, MdM, Oxfam, local group the Citizen Platform in Support of Refugees, the Red Cross, CIRÉ and Vluchtelingen Werken) all offer services in this space, which measures 900 square meters. Volunteers with these organizations provide migrants with medical services, psychological support, legal aid and a clothing distribution.

Between 150 and 200 people come to the centre on a daily basis. According to local NGOs, there are about 600 homeless migrants in the Belgian capital, most of whom are from Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia.

On this winter day, most of the visitors to the hub are here to pick up warm clothing, especially coats and shoes.

"That’s why they were fighting earlier,” says 25-year-old Mohammed* from Sudan. “They were afraid that they wouldn’t find clothing in the right size.”

Mohammed has been in Brussels for the past ten days, after spending four months in France and making several attempts to get to England from Calais.

“I haven’t been able to get to England from the Belgian coasts because the security has been increased over the past few weeks,” Mohammed said. “I am going to go back to Calais.”

Like Mohammed, many of the migrants currently in Belgium are in transit, still dreaming of England.

Appointments with doctors and psychologists

Clothing may be the number one reason that people come to the hub, but many others are here for medical and psychological consultations. The offices staffed by doctors with MdM and MSF are full all day.

Adam*, who is originally from East Africa, shyly enters the office of Franck, a doctor with MdM.

"In our recent appointments, we’ve seen lots of cases of chickenpox and several cases of scabies,” he says. “The cramped conditions in which many migrants are living increase the risks of spreading these diseases. A lot of people are also suffering from respiratory illnesses. This is a vulnerable population, which is constantly exposed to cold and wind,” says Louisa, a doctor with MdM who is coordinating the hub for the day.

In another office, Xavier, a psychologist from with MSF, works every day with migrants who are in serious psychological distress.

He says that most of his patients focus on their living conditions in Europe, and speak less about their experiences in their home countries or while traveling.

Between mid-September and late December 2017, Xavier treated 140 people. In the month of January 2018 alone, he saw 99 patients.

"The demand is increasing exponentially", he says.

"They imagine Europe as the continent of human rights, but, when they arrive here, they are completely disillusioned. They never imagined that they’d be sleeping outside in a state with rule of law,” the psychologist explains.

This disillusionment can provoke depression on top of any symptoms of post-traumatic stress that they might already be experiencing, like sadness, despair or hopelessness.

“Some have tried to commit suicide,” he says. “Others have started crying in my office. If they had a safe place to go and felt more secure, we’d have a lot less of these cases.”

* These first names were changed  

>> The "humanitarian hub" is located in the Brussels-North railway station (Gare du Nord). It is open from Monday to Friday, from 1 pm to 5 pm.