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Belgium: New asylum Bill passes Senate

01 July 1996

The controversial new asylum bill proposed by the Belgian government which significantly diminishes rights of asylum-seekers has passed the Belgian senate virtually unscathed. It is now only a matter of time before the bill becomes law. Many civil liberties activists and refugee charities were hoping that the Senate would introduce amendments "humanising" the bill. Their hopes were particularly centred on leading Christian Democratic senators such as Bea Cantillon, who had described the bill as a "one-sided, shortsighted and negative proposal that only emerged as a result of pressure from politically perverse organisations". At one stage it even appeared that both the governing christian Democratic and Socialist groups in the senate were going to abstain, which would have put the bill in jeopardy. In the event only four senators from the government coalition abstained and the bill was passed in its entirety. The new law will hit refugees and asylum seekers in a number of new ways. It increases the length of time that an asylum seeker can be held in custody from two months to renewable periods of six months. At the same time it removes state benefits from those who have been granted temporary leave to remain, forcing them to live in open centres where only their basic needs will be provided for. The bill also removes the right of foreign students to remain in the country if they do not have the means to support themselves, whilst restricting the help that any Belgian citizen can provide to illegal immigrants. De Morgen 29/6/96