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

Regularisation
A “one shot” regularisation procedure was organised by the Law of 22 December 1999.
According to this, aliens were authorised to apply for an unlimited residence provided that they
were already staying in Belgium on 1 October 1999 and came under one of the following
categories:
– asylum seekers whose application is still pending after four years of procedure, or three years
for families with school-aged children;
– aliens who, for reasons beyond their control, are unable to return to their country of origin, or
in their last country of residence before arriving in Belgium;
– aliens who are seriously ill;
– aliens who may invoke humanitarian reasons and have long-time social links in Belgium, for
instance if they have been in the country for more than six years, or five years for families with
school-aged children.
Applications had to be submitted between 10 and 31 January 2000 to the local authorities and
were then forwarded to a Commission of Regularisation (“Commission de régularisation”)
established by the Law of 22 December 1999. The Ministry of Interior makes final decisions upon
recommendation of the Commission. By 31 January 2000, 33,000 applications had been
submitted.
Rejection at the border
The border police have not the authority to refuse entry to aliens applying for asylum at border
points and must therefore refer all border applications to the Aliens Office for a decision on entry.
There is no specific border or airport procedure and border applicants are thus processed under
the same admissibility procedure as in-country asylum seekers (see “Admissibility procedure”
below).
However, in accordance with Section 74/5 of the Aliens Law, border applicants who do not have
the required documentation to enter Belgium legally may be maintained in a detention centre
(“centre fermé”) either at the border or within the country, until a decision on the admissibility of
their application has been made. Such detention lasts until the decision is made, though no
longer than two months. If no decision has been made within this two-month period, the applicant
is released and allowed entry in the country.
In-country applications
Asylum seekers who find themselves, legally or illegally, within the country must submit their
application to the Aliens Office. Applicants who contact other institutions must be referred to the
Aliens Office.
Upon submission of his/her application, the asylum seeker is issued with a document (“Annexe
26bis”) with his/her photography and identity and stating that he/she has applied for asylum in
Belgium. Whenever possible, the applicant is interviewed the same day by an officer of the Aliens
Office, but this happens rarely due to high number of applications in recent years. In most cases,
he/she is given an appointment to be interviewed at a later stage. Following the interview, the
asylum seeker is either notified the decision on admissibility the same day or – more usually –
requested to come to the Office at a later date to receive the decision.
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Belgium