Belgium: Asylum seeker death
01 January 1998
An Algerian asylum seeker who was found dead three weeks after being returned to Algeria has led to angry denunciations of the Belgian government's immigration policy in the Belgian parliamentary committee for internal affairs. In a debate highlighting the position of Kurdish refugees who are on hungerstrike in an attempt to avoid deportation to Turkey MPs called on the minister to rethink his position regarding deportations.
Although the debate was based on the plight of 8 Kurdish refugees the case of Ben Othman was central to the argument between Interior minister Vande Lanotte and his accusers. Ben Othman was deported last year after assurances had been given by Vande Lanotte to the Belgian parliament that Othman's life was not in danger.
Three weeks after he returned to Algeria he was found dead in suspicious circumstances. The Algerian government claimed that he had committed suicide, a claim supported by Vande Lanotte. However Amnesty International has queried this. MP Karel van Hoorbake from the Vlaams Unie has gone further and claimed that his "suicide" was in fact deliberate murder disguised as suicide.
Van Hoorbake was backed up in the debate by Jef Tavernier of the Agalev-Ecolo fraction who pressed the case of eight Kurdish asylum seekers who recently came off hunger-strike after their deportation notices were suspended. It has since emerged that the eight were served with deportation notices without having been given the chance to exhaust the appeal procedures. Furthermore it appears that Vande Lanotte had established the potential danger of returning the eight Kurds to Turkey by contacting the Turkish embassy. As one MP put it "one can ask if the Turkish ambassador is sufficiently objective to provide a clear report on the issue."
In his defence Vande Lanotte claimed Othman had been betrayed by his family and that he also had a history of suicide attempts. He also stated that too much attention was focused on the behaviour of the Algerian government whilst ignoring the role of Islamic fundamentalists.
He defended the behaviour of his department over the Kurdish refugees by claiming that this was an administrative matter and that his civil servants were simply following routine. He also questioned the reliability as well as the honesty of Amnesty International.
Amnesty International responded with the following statement: "Minister Vande Lannotte finds himself in excellent company. Dictators and authoritarian leaders in five continents have accused Amnesty International of lying".
Report of Parliamentary Committee for internal affairs, 20.1.98.