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JRS Belgium - www.jrsbelgium.org Political Developments In 2008, Belgium experienced much political instability: while general elections took place in June 2007, a government was not installed until March 2008. Tensions amongst the various parties of the governmental coalition were omnipresent throughout the year, having a negative impact on immigration policy. In a coalition agreement, the government stated that a circular letter should be drawn up defining criteria allowing undocumented migrants, already well integrated into Belgian society, to be legalised. Despite the promises, the government did not come to an agreement on the issue in 2008, leading to various protests across the country. Two major demonstrations took place in Brussels and Antwerp in favour of undocumented people, with JRS Belgium present at both. Several hunger strikes by groups of undocumented people, some of which lasted more than two months, also took place throughout the year - with some of these hunger strikers getting a resident permit of three to nine months. The actions of a number of undocumented people gathered much media attention during the summer months, after they mounted several construction cranes around Brussels.

Blamed for inactivity in her field, the Minister for Asylum and Migration Policy, Ms Annemie Turtelboom, attempted to make some progress on other issues, namely, the detention of families with children. Initially, she stated that this practice did not impinge on rights of the child, but following pressure from civil society organisations, she decided to implement alternatives. These organisations had reminded her of a study on alternatives to the detention of families with children made upon the request of the Minister of Home Affairs in February 2007 and which stated that detention can be very harmful for children. As of October 2008, families with children staying irregularly on the territory were no longer detained. Instead, they were brought to open housing, accompanied by a “coach”, with a view of returning to their country of origin.

This “coach” idea is based on models already used in Sweden and Australia, but with some differences. In Belgium the coach is only appointed once all other procedures have been exhausted, while in Australia, each family gets a coach from the beginning of the procedure. Moreover, in Belgium the coach is not an independent person, since he is a civil servant of the Alien’s Board, and his only task is to convince families to accept the return to their home country. These elements are seen as an obstacle for the families, in view of building a relationship of trust with the coach.

NGOs, while commending the Minister’s search for such alternatives, feared that a badly prepared pilot project would not be successful, and that failure would be used as an argument to detain families with children again. They expressed their discontent that the measure was not applicable to all families, in that, families with children applying for asylum at the border, mainly Brussels airport, were still being detained.


JRS Activities

Detention
The core of JRS Belgium activities was the accompaniment and services offered to foreigners – asylum seekers and irregular migrants – detained in administrative detention centres. In 2008, JRS Belgium experienced an increase in the number of detention centre visitors, whether employed workers or volunteers. This made JRS Belgium the only Belgian organisation visiting all five detention centres on a weekly basis, meaning the expertise of JRS-Belgium in this domain also increased.