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The Belgian Approach: the Family Units
Geert Verbauwhede, acting Advisor
Conference on Alternatives to Detention
Interior
16.11.2011
16.11.2011
History before and since alternative
• Until 1998: no detention of families with children (exception: border cases)
• Until 15.05.2001: detention of one of the parents; rest of the family free problem: rest of the family did not present themselves at date of removal
• Until 01.10.2008: detention of families as a whole
• From 01.10.2008: no detention of families with children (exception: border cases)
• Since 01.10.2009: also border cases no longer detained
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Why this change?
• Pressure of NGO’s and parliament to seek for alternatives
• 2006-2007: report made by external study agency with presentation of different alternatives
• 2007: report presented to parliament
• March 2008: test with invitations to the Immigration Office – unsuccessful (only 10 % of invitees came)
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Creation of Family Identification and Return Unit (FITT) 1 October 2008
• Return officers (coaches) of Immigration Office
• Assist families in preparation of return, legal questions, logistical matters, …
• Cooperation with IOM
• Sponsored by EU Return Fund
• Cooperation with local authorities and NGO’s
• Also looking for staying alternatives if asked by families (depending on information given by families)
• Now: 4 coaches + 1 coordinator + 2 technical support + 1 logistical supervisor
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Family Units
• Alternative = individual houses or apartments for families (former police force houses)
• 15 family units in use – 7 in preparation
• Completely equipped en furnished
• One family per unit because of privacy – in bigger houses possibility to put 2 families
• Long term Plans : looking for bigger site and / or extra locations then of course necessity for extra coaches
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Family units in detention Centre
• Recent ECHR decision: no detention of families unless specific infrastructure
• Decision of State Secretary for Migration and Asylum Policy: creation of specific family units in the detention centre at the airport separated from rest of detention centre; 5 prefab vacation houses with necessary infrastructure
• Who can be detained: specific border cases (INAD), families who did not respect rules in family units
• Timing: Spring 2012
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Legislative framework
• Royal Decree of 14 May 2009: rules for the family units, rights and obligations for families
• Planned: Royal Decree stipulating which categories of families with children can be detained in future
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Evaluation
• Relatively positive evaluation by NGO’s and by administration; international interest in system (Council of Europe, EU, other EU member states)
• BUT: concerns about large number of absconding (25 % - percentage of absconders within Dublin scheme is even 53 %)
• Exhaustive internal evaluation on different criteria, which can be used for future continuous evaluation
• Family units are no longer Project but are embedded return procedure
• Still necessity to develop cooperation with other State Agencies (e.g. reception centres)
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Assessment on arrival of families at the Border
• Since opening of family units for border cases: clear increase of families arriving at border + new nationalities (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Sri Lanka) and new departure airports (Moscow) from 23 families in 2009 over 66 in 2010 to already 103 until 27.10.2011
• Families stayed already a long time in third (transit) countries before arriving in Belgium
• Many recognized refugees + subsidiary protection at the border
• Looking for balance – avoid that family units become pull factor
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Statistics (up to 03.11.2011)
• 249 families with 452 minor children (80 irregular migrant families,
51 Dublin families, 118 border families)
• 240 families have left the family units
- 102 families departed to country of origin or third country (23 IOM, 25 Dublin cases, 5 bilateral cases, 14 “forced” removals, 34 refoulments at border, 1 voluntary departure without assistance)
- 60 families “escaped” (absconded)
- 78 families were freed (9 families temporarily or definitively regularized; 29 families recognised as refugee; 8 families subsidiary protection, 5 families pending asylum procedure; …)
- 1 family separated (child not related with “parent”)
• Average staying period: 23,7 days
• Top 5 nationalities: Iraq, Afghanistan, Brazil, Russian Federation,
Armenia
