Belgium: Asylum and immigration (2)
01 January 1991
Belgium: Asylum and immigration
artdoc November=1995
Somali family "chain deported"
A Somali family of six were "chain deported" from Belgium to the
Czech Republic, to Slovakia and the Ukraine, where they can no
longer be traced, according to a report by the European Council
on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE).
On 29 May, the Somali woman and her five children were
detained at Brussels airport. Five weeks later, the Belgian
authorities said their asylum application was "fraudulent" and
put them on a plane to Prague. Czech officials discovered family
members had expired visas allowing transit through Slovakia and
removed them to Bratislava, where officials from the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees found them sleeping rough at the
airport.
UNHCR considered the family's claim for asylum well-founded but
Slovak authorities refused to register a claim, labelling the
family as tourists whose stay would be "too costly and
impossible".
At this point, they were sent by train to the Ukraine (Guardian
23.2.95).
Refugees accused of defrauding benefit system
An official inquiry into refugee claimants of social benefits was
set up, under the chairmanship of magistrate Bulthe, shortly
after a newspaper, La Demiere Heure, carried a front-page story
accusing Africans, photographed outside a social security office
at Ixelles, of being "swindlers". According to Solidaire,
African refugees, far from being swindlers, are being denied the
full benefits due to them (Solidaire 18.1.95).
IRR European Race Audit, no 13, April 1995. Contact: Liz Fekete,
Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London WC1X 9HS.
Tel: 0171 837 0041