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Basque activist asks for Asylum

01 July 1996

Another Basque activist has applied to the Belgian government for asylum. Enrique Pagoaga belongs to a group of a about twenty Basques who were deported to Venezuela in the Eighties. The Spanish government denies all knowledge of Pagoaga and the belgian government wants to deport him back to Venezuela. Pagoaga's story begins in France in 1987, when he was deported to Algeria by the French government in an attempt to disperse and subdue Basque communities. From Algeria he was flown to South America, along with many other Basques, in a Spanish military aircraft. He was then dumped in Venezuela, where he was required to report to the police once a month to have his residence permit renewed. Facing increasing harassment from the Venezuelan government he decided to leave and eventually arrived in Zaventem airport without any papers. He has since asked for asylum in Belgium. The Belgian government's first response was to attempt to deport him back to Venezuela. This was prevented by Pagoaga's asylum application and it has since been established that Pagoaga is a Schengen-country citizen which gives him automatic right of abode in Belgium. Pagoaga's request for political asylum has however been turned down after Spain denied any interest in him. Pagoaga is appealing against this decision. In the mean time Commissioner-General for Refugees Marc Bossuyt has now decided to prosecute him for possession of false papers. Although there is now no real risk that Pagoaga will be deported his appeal for political asylum still has the potential to embarrass the Belgian government. Relations between Spain and Belgium, already tense after the Belgian supreme court rejected Spain's extradition application for a basque couple, would be severely strained if Belgium were to accept the asylum application of a Spanish citizen who has no warrants outstanding for him in Spain. De Morgen, 2.7.96 & 3.7.96.