legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in ...

Other types of residence permit
Temporary protection
There are no general provisions on temporary protection in the Aliens Law. However, special
temporary protection regimes have been established, through ministerial circulars, in order to
solve specific problems.
Between September 1992 and March 1995, a “status of displaced persons” was granted to
citizens from former Yugoslavia in the form of “statement of arrival”. This status, based on a
ministerial circular and not a law, allowed lawful temporary residence in Belgium initially for a
three-month period provided that the persons concerned withdrew their applications for asylum.
From November 1992, these “statements of arrival” were valid for six-month periods (renewable).
The “status of displaced persons” is no longer granted, and persons with this status have been
subject to an individual re-examination by the Aliens Office (“Office des Etrangers”). Following
this, the status was either withdrawn (such as the case of persons from Macedonian, Slovene,
Serbia (except), Montenegro, Macedonian and Croatia) and the person ordered to leave the
territory, or the person was registered in the register of foreigners (such as the case of persons
from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo or the Serb-occupied area of Croatia) and allowed to stay in
the Belgium.
Temporary protection was granted to Kosovo Albanians by a circular of the Ministry of Interior
dated 19 May 1999. The residence permit, granted in practice through the registration of the
person in the commune’s register of foreigners, was valid for six months, and could be prolonged
as long as necessary. Temporary protection was no longer granted after 3 September 1999. The
residence permit of those persons who had obtained or applied for temporary protection before 3
September 1999 was prolonged until 2 March 2000, or 30 June 2000 for families with schoolaged
children. The social rights granted to Kosovo Albanians under temporary protection are
described under “Social Conditions for Persons under Temporary Protection” below.
Residence permit “under exceptional circumstances”
According to Section 9(3) of the Aliens Law, aliens may “under exceptional circumstances” apply
to the Ministry of Interior for a residence permit. This is a very general provision and the detailed
regulations can be found in a circular of the Minister of Interior of 15 December 1998.
This provision is widely used by asylum seekers whose applications are rejected after the
procedure has taken many years and who therefore have strong ties in Belgium. They may, for
example, have jobs (which presupposes the fact that they have reached the second stage of the
procedure, given that they are not legally entitled to work during the “admissibility” stage, see
below); they may have learnt one or both of the national languages, their children may have been
born in Belgium or have grown up there and have followed normal schooling, etc.
Like any other decisions taken within the framework of the Aliens Law, the Minister has to give
the reasons for the decision based on Section 9(3) and, where appropriate, explain why the
circumstances invoked cannot be regarded as exceptional.
Rejection of a request by the Minister may be appealed for suspension and annulment to the
Council of State within 60 days of notification.
The rejection of an application for refugee status cannot lead to the automatic rejection of an
application for regularisation of residence, since the scope of these concepts is different.
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Belgium