Belgium: Asylum Bill attacked
01 March 1996
The new Belgian Asylum Bill has come under sustained attack from judicial and civil liberties groups while passing through its committee stage. Groups as diverse as the "Orde van Advokaten", the "Centrum voor Gelijkheid van Kansen en Racismebestrijding" [Centre for Equality and against racism] and the League of Human Rights have all attacked the new legislation.
The new legislation has three areas of controversy. The first covers changes in the incarceration of asylum seekers. Until now the only people who were allowed to be locked up pending a decision on their asylum claim were people whose freedom posed a danger to public order or those whose circumstances suggested a serious need for detention. The new bill proposes to make incarceration the rule rather than the exception. At the same time the new bill would allow asylum seekers to be held indefinitely. Johan Leman, director of the Centrum voor Gelijkheid van Kansen, attacked this aspect, stating that the new bill would "allow people to be held for months if not years without having committed any crime whatsoever".
The second area involves students, stating that any foreign student without sufficient funds or dependent on social security for more than three months would be deported. Leman pointed out that many students have temporary cashflow problems owing to bureaucratic difficulties: "it isn't fair to put them on a plane just for that reason."
A third area of controversy concerns the arrangements covering transport companies such as airlines. The changes make them responsible for insuring that anyone who comes into Belgium not only has all the necessary documents but also that the individual does not pose a threat to Belgian security or relations between Belgium and another Schengen country. The transporters will be liable for any costs if they fail to live up to these requirements. Leman points out that "this turns transport companies into an arm of the civil service".
However the minister responsible for the new Asylum Bill, Johan vande Lanotte, is not completely without supporters. The far-right Vlaams Blok has been very vocal in its support for the new legislation, with its leader Filip De Winter claiming that most of the proposals enshrined in the Asylum Bill can be found in the Blok's notorious Seventy-point programme.
Airlines Say New Asylum Bill "Impossible to Implement"
New asylum legislation currently being proposed by the Belgian government has been condemned by the International Air transport Association (IATA). "The responsibilities that the minister is imposing on transporters of non-EU nationals are impossible to implement" according to a spokesperson for the IATA. The Belgian national airline Sabena has also criticised the new proposals.
Present legislation dictates that any company who transports foreigners who enter the country without proper documents is subject to a fine of up to 750,000 BF (?12,500) and must pay the costs of maintaining the individual for the time he or she is in Belgium, including the housing, healthcare and if necessary the guarding of him or her. Companies are also liable for any repatriation costs. These expenses already cost Sabena 30 million BF a year
The new draft legislation proposes that transport companies should also find out whether the people they are carrying have sufficient means to provide for themselves while in Belgium. Transporters will furthermore be required to establish whether their passengers pose any threat to Belgian public order, or that of any other Schengen-country. Finally the companies are expected to inquire as to whether any visa held by a passenger was obtained under false pretences.
A spokeswoman for Sabena stated that these new proposals are matters that no airline could possibly carry out: "how can we possibly check whether somebody poses a danger to the state?"
The IATA has pointed out that not only are these proposals virtually impossi