Humanitarian visa obligation for asylum seekers not enforceable

State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken is not obliged to grant a humanitarian visa to a Syrian family that wished to travel to Belgium in order to request asylum here, after all. A Belgian judge had ordered Theo Francken to do so. However, the Council for Alien Law Litigation (RvV) rejected all appeal procedures by the family. In an earlier ruling on the grounds of the case, the European Court of Justice had already ruled that the granting of such a humanitarian visa to submit a request for asylum was contrary to European law as well. “It seems logical to me for all the imposed penalties to be declared null and void now,” says Theo Francken.

“The result of this judgement is of crucial significance,” Theo Francken notes. “In consequence the Belgian State is no longer obliged to grant a visa to this family. And the legal costs are being laid at the feet of the parties that brought the matter to court.”

Penalties null and void too

The State Secretary is also starting up an emergency procedure to have the unjustly imposed penalties declared null and void. In the meantime they have reached EUR 564,000. “Of which we have so far paid zero euros. And I’m not planning on changing that,” says Theo Francken.

The family’s only appeal left now is to the Council of State. “But I am hoping that with this judgement a definitive end will come to the legal procedure which has taken many months,” Theo Francken concludes.