2024-01-04 05:00:00
Genet and Steve have been in Belgium for several years. Arriving on Belgian soil and quickly integrated, they built their lives here. But they were recently asked to leave the territory and return to their country of origin. The two refugees bear witness to a phenomenon which seems to be intensifying.
Steve has been living in Liège for six years now. Arriving from Cameroon, where he fled the politics in place, he found in Belgium a welcoming land where he feels good. First a master’s student at the University of Liège, he has been on a permanent contract at Colruyt since 2020. A journey without shadows for the young man who counts “numerous professional, sporting and cultural ties” as well as a companion in the country of his heart. “My life is here”he assures.
The arrest
But on November 17, things changed for Steve. While he was at home, the police showed up. “I was arrested at home and locked up overnight in the police premises then transferred to the closed center in Bruges”, he tells the RTL info team. There followed 15 days of detention before being brought, at his request, to Liège near “his family, friends and colleagues”.
The reason for this arrest? Steve is in an irregular situation. In 2019, he submitted an asylum application to which he waited for a response for… three and a half years. “I received the negative response in May 2023. Following that, I received an order to leave the territory”he explains. “My lawyer filed an appeal to cancel it. I also requested regularization of my situation with my employment contract.”
Time has therefore caught up with Steve and on this famous November 17, what is also called the “OQT” (Order to leave the territory) was implemented. A first and second appeal trial was necessary for our interlocutor to finally be released. A first victory not without consequences. “I always have to look left and right if I’m not going to be arrested…”
The incomprehension
Today, the appeal for the cancellation of the OQT and the request for regularization are still in progress. Having to prove once again that he is integrated and attached to Belgium, Steve finds that “unfortunate”. “I pay my social security contributions, my taxes, my rent, I have no problems with the justice system or the police. We wonder what we really have to do to be recognized as a Belgian citizen…”he laments.
But Steve does not feel alone, especially thanks to a petition launched by his colleagues on the internet, which has so far collected more than 4,000 signatures. Enough to bring balm to the heart of this Cameroonian of origin, just like in that of Genet, who came from Eritrea, who suffered the same fate, as well as his entire family.
Employed in a daycare, Genet has lived in Hamois for nine years. “My children were born and educated here,” she emphasizes. “They grew up here, they don’t know their mother’s country of origin…” However, on December 11, she too received an order to leave the territory. She continues to work in her structure, also supported by a local petition. “We’re waiting to know if we can stay or not…”
Genet and Steve are not the only ones in this situation, to be ordered to leave even though they are perfectly integrated.
Are these orders to leave the territory more numerous than before?
For Matthieu Lys, lawyer specializing in immigration law, it is not a question of more orders but perhaps of better monitoring of these “administrative decisions issued automatically to rejected asylum seekers and people in an irregular situation who, at a given moment, appear”.
Same story with Caritas, for whom “there have always been a lot of OQTs” in Belgium. But, according to Anne Dussart, the head of the asylum and immigration department of Caritas, these would simply be better applied and monitored. She explains: “We have the impression that today, the Immigration Office monitors the OQT better”notes Anne Dussart. “If Belgium decides to grant an OQT, it is because the file has been analyzed and the person must leave the territory. But just giving this document is not enough, it must be accompanied: it is the responsibility of the State, the Foreigners’ Office, the cities and municipalities which give and follow these documents.”
Obligations to leave the territory, regularizations; kézako?
- There are two categories of people who can receive an OQT: those who have made an asylum application who, when it is rejected, cannot stay in Belgium; they are then given an order to leave the territory.
- The second category is that of migrants who arrive in Belgium to work or study with a legal visa. There comes a time when this visa expires and these people who remain will find themselves in an irregular situation. If these people are stopped by the police, they will have to leave the country.
- People targeted by an OQT have 30 days to leave, and appeals can last “months or even years”according to lawyer Matthieu Lys.
- If a person is in an irregular situation, they submit a request for regularization to be able to stay. These requests take a long time; they are filed with the Immigration Office. It is the Secretary of State who decides which people can stay.
- Appeals are not suspensive, which means that they “do not give people the right to stay in the territory during the processing of the file”. “This is a problem because it is impossible to ask these people to return to their country while waiting for the judge’s decision”deplores the lawyer specializing in immigration law.
- Caritas explains that people targeted by these OQTs have two options: “remain in Belgium while awaiting the possible decision on regularization but in a very precarious situation or accept an accompanied return to the country of origin”.
- Some orders to leave the territory are not in phase with geopolitical reality. Rejected Afghan asylum seekers, for example, cannot return to their country since there is no agreement with the Taliban government.
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