Asylum & Migration policy memorandum: “Always the same recipes that don’t work”

On Monday, the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, de Moor, presented her 2023 policy memorandum in the Chamber of Representatives. MP Tomas Roggeman is clear after reading the policy memorandum: “The Secretary of State is not taking any concrete initiative that will actually curb the influx of asylum seekers and increase the outflow. The policy statement lacks accompanying measures such as stricter family reunification that make it less attractive to travel here and apply for asylum.”

A large part of the Secretary of State’s policy memorandum is devoted to the planned reform of asylum services. This reform comes after an audit that had previously been proposed to parliament. The planned reform will have to offer a solution to the often unwieldy functioning of the asylum services. For MP Tomas Roggeman, the Secretary of State must also dare to make policy choices that effectively make a difference when it concerns the procedures used. Large-scale internal reform alone is not enough for him.

No decisive choices

“The Secretary of State is presenting a policy memorandum today that simply continues the inefficient policy and does not dare to make decisive choices. This should not be surprising with coalition partners such as the PS, Ecolo and Groen parties, who put the brakes on any decisive initiative on repatriation or reducing the influx,” Roggeman says. This is also apparent from the fact that de Moor was to present her family reunification bill to parliament at the end of this year, but there is no mention of it now in her policy memorandum.

Hardly any repatriation initiatives

What is not stated in the policy memorandum? Roggeman sums up: “There are still hardly any criminals without residence status being sent back. No initiative whatsoever is being taken to tackle the increasing violence in asylum centres or the high number of failed forced removals. Figures also show that there are still hardly any people with vulnerable profiles staying in the LOIs, despite a promise in the federal coalition agreement.”

Recipes that don’t work

According to Tomas Roggeman, what does appear in the memorandum are recipes that do not work. “De Moor wants to remain committed to voluntary return, even though the figures show that those return rates continue to fall.” The same applies to the voluntary return of transmigrants. “Half of them simply ignore the order to leave the territory.” De Moor also wants to focus more on labour migration, but Roggeman would rather see the government focus on activating the many inactive people in Wallonia and Brussels. “In addition, one-third of living wages go to people without Belgian nationality. That probably says it all.”