Discouraging drawn-out proceedings at Immigration Services

As of September, a new points system for the remuneration of lawyers who provide legal assistance to persons of insufficient or limited means will come into force. This new Fee A fee is remuneration requested by the government for a specific service that it provides. The difference between a fee and taxes is that there is an immediate service provided in return for a fee. An example is the parking charges that the municipalities can enforce. They can carry out the collection thereof themselves, or contract this out. fee system for public defenders must, among other things, bring about an end to the abuses which take place in immigration cases. “With this move the present government accomplishes one of the most sweeping reforms to Immigration Services ever”, remarks State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken.

The new points system will lead to a reduction of proceedings and an improvement in the quality of case files, thereby trimming waiting lists and reducing the backlog at Immigration Services. “It is how this government aims to succeed by the end of 2017 in nearly eradicating the entire Immigration Services backlog”, Francken robustly asserts. “That would truly make history.”

Discouraging repeated application for asylum

“After several past failed attempts, the present government has finally begun to crack down on the lucrative asylum and migration business via the public defence system”, Francken explains. “Every person of insufficient means has the right to representation by public defence; however, abuses and drawn-out proceedings are to be heavily discouraged from a financial point of view.” In this way, from now on a public defence lawyer will only receive 3 points an hour - 1 point is worth 25 euros - for a hearing attendance at the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless persons (CGRS), instead of the fixed 15 points or 375 euros which they presently receive. The point payment value will drop in the event that no new aspects are presented for a repeat asylum application. And for manifest fraudulent appeals and for appeals that by some error fail to be listed, the public defender will in fact receive no compensation at all.

For the current year, the total costs of the public defence system amount to approximately 73 million euros. A quarter to a third of all public defence proceedings involves the Immigration Services.