Belgians take tough line on immigration

Date: 18/04/1996

By Jean-Paul Marthoz

“WHY are you leaving your country?”

The policeman, big and stern, stands at the gate. The child looks puzzled, shows his ID, mumbles confused answers and is sent to a cramped prison cell. Close by, his mother tries to keep smiling and braces herself for the interrogation. Behind the gates, bullet-riddled and half-destroyed buildings stand ominously in the darkness.

Where are we? In Sarajevo, Grozny or Kigali? No, just in an old cigarette factory in Ixelles a few blocks away from the European Parliament, where the Belgian humanitarian organisation Coordination et Initiatives pour Refugiés Étrangers (CIRE) has set up a vast interactive exhibition on the 'refugee crisis'.

Visitors are asked to choose a nationality (Colombian, Turkish, Zairean, Russian, etc), read about the country of their choice on a computer screen and, armed with their brand new ID, take the long road to exile.

They will meander through a stunningly realistic journey, confront border guards, escape shipwreck, face questioning by unruffled functionaries and very often end up in a refugee centre or prison before being expelled from the country.

This exhibition, which has received the support of, among others, the King Baudouin Foundation, the European Union, the UNHCR and private companies, could not have been more timely.

Although the official number of asylum seekers has been steadily decreasing from a high of 26,833 in 1993 to 11,409 in 1995, the Belgian House of Representatives passed a new law in early April tightening asylum procedures.

The new rules increase the penalties on airlines and maritime companies, which will have to cover the deportation costs if they are found guilty of transporting 'illegitimate' refugees. Asylum seekers will be obliged to stay in a reception centre until their fate has been decided and will not be entitled to receive money from local assistance centres. If their case is dismissed, they may be kept in custody for an unlimited period.

The bill, which was introduced by Home Affairs Minister Johan Vande Lanotte, a Flemish Socialist, was carried easily with 104 votes in favour (Social-Christians, Socialists, Liberals) and 25 against (the Greens, the Volksunie and the Vlaams Blok). The ultra-rightist Flemish bloc expressed its thanks to Vande Lanotte, but said that his bill “did not go far enough”.

The debate over the new refugee policy has been very acrimonious. It pitted the bill's backers, who insisted on the need to adapt Belgian legislation to international commitments such as the Schengen Agreement or the Dublin Convention, against its opponents, who retorted that the new measures contradicted fundamental principles of human rights and made any asylum seeker a potential suspect.

Throughout its short history, Belgium has taken a liberal attitude towards refugees. In the 19th century, Victor Hugo and many of the French communards sought and found refuge in the country. The Rossel family, who now own the biggest newspaper chain in the country, arrived at about that time. In the 1930s and following the Second World War, numerous Spaniards and Italians fleeing civil war, dictatorships or poverty also poured into Belgium. Many of them are now as Belgian as Vice-Premier Elio di Rupo.

In most countries, even in the United States where immigration is the soul of the nation, asylum and immigration have never been easy issues.

In Belgium, the refugee 'crisis', which has been systematically exploited and blown out of proportion by the far-right, is closely linked to - and often confused with - the more general question of illegal immigration and even with the difficulties of integration.

It also feeds on a sense of insecurity caused by lingering unemployment, chaos on the doorstep of Europe, budgetary deficits and fears of economic globalisation.

In this highly charged and emotional debate, perceptions are often more decisive than reality.

The population thinks, for instance, that the number of illegal immigrants has increased enormously. However, according to a recent investigation by

Le Vif/L'Express, the most likely figure is about 100,000 compared to 70,000 in 1974.

Many people also surmise that most of these illegal immigrants have come here to stay. In fact many of them - Nigerians, Latin Americans or Poles - take the risk of living clandestinely in the hope of 'making a fast buck' and then heading back home as soon as they hit the jackpot.

Some make it, but most just muddle through, providing an easy target for exploitation.

In the late Eighties and early Nineties, the number of refugees rose the world over. There were some 5 million in 1979 and

23 million in 1994. In Belgium, the number of asylum seekers rose from 4,508 in 1988 to more than 26,000 five years later.

This phenomenon has its origins in wars, famine and destitution in developing countries or in the former Communist bloc, but it is also linked to trends within the EU such as the growth of the underground economy.

“How can we manage the crisis without making Belgium too attractive, or being blind to inevitable tragedies?” asked Le Vif/L'Express. Cases of 'fake' refugees and criminal networks have clouded the issue.

“We would have liked, without being overly compassionate, different ideals to guide a political class which has become so hard-hearted,” wrote La Libre Belgique in a recent editorial.

Does this apply to the general public too? Even though dozens of associations, churches and lawyers try to alleviate the plight of illegal immigrants and have campaigned against the bill, Belgium has proved itself to be no exception in a European continent that does not seem ready to receive the huddled masses of a muddled world.