Non-European criminals out of EU more quickly

State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken is going to present his European colleagues with a proposal that is intended to make it easier to revoke the residence permit of criminals from outside the EU who have been given an effective (non-suspended) prison sentence of more than one year in any Member State of the EU. The foundation for that proposal was already laid in Belgium last year via a project called Eurescrim. “Within that project we are already cooperating very successfully with Spain,” the State Secretary says. “I now wish to expand the project further at EU level.”

Theo Francken provides the specific example of a drugs dealer with Moroccan nationality and a Spanish residence permit who is arrested in Antwerp and given a prison sentence of more than one year. “Until now I wasn’t able to deport that person,” he says. “Or rather, I deported him to Spain or even to Morocco, but in next to no time he was back here again. Of course, with his Spanish residence permit, he was able to re-enter Europe.”

As from last year, our services responsible for the matter have been examining together with their Spanish colleagues whether that residence permit can be revoked. “It’s a great success,” says the State Secretary, which also instantly explains why he wishes to expand the project to other EU countries. “I predict that support for this measure will be very high, because fighting crime really is a priority for a great many governments. We are fourteen countries in the project now.”

Cooperating effectively

The beauty of the project is that it’s not even necessary for laws to be created or adapted to reach an agreement with all countries of the EU. “The legal aspects are all in place,” Theo Francken explains. “The project just needs promoting. We’ve been doing that for a year now.” He finds the greatest problem to be that there was no effective cooperation within Europe. “I set it up with Spain because Spain has carried out a great many regularisations in the past and therefore has a large number of non-Europeans on its territory. It’s also because many of them travel onward to other European countries, particularly with the crisis in Spain.”