Foreword
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations
Prologue
Introduction
0.1 A Remarkable Job
0.2. How did all this Work out?
0.3. My Story
0.4. Some Sensitive Cases
0.5. Other Individual Cases
0.6. Hearing of Asylum Seekers
0.7. The Asylum 'Kitchen'
1. 'Vox clamantis in deserto'
1.1 Preparations in a Period of 'Care Taking Business'
1.2 My First Steps as Commissioner General
1.3 Chairperson of the UN Commission on Human Rights
1.4 A Chinese Misunderstanding
1.5 Ghanaian Asylum-Seeker Networks
1.6 The Reception Conditions 'Crying Vengeance to Heaven' at the National Airport
1.6.1 'Care Taking Business' under Martens VII
1.6.2 Repelling Responsibility under Martens VIII
1.7 'Refugee Policy Collapses'
1.8 The Asylum Crisis in Switzerland
2. Patrick Ryan, an Irish Asylum Seeker
2.1 The Asylum Application Intersects with the Extradition Request
2.2. My Recommendation: Send Ryan to Ireland
2.3. Favourable Opinion of the Court on Extradition to the UK
2.4. Ryan not Extradited: Thatcher is Furious about Martens
2.4.1 The Transfer to Ireland
2.4.2 Margaret Thatcher Furious and Jean Gol Unleashed
2.5 Virulent Reactions in the Irish and British Parliaments
2.6 British Rage Prevents a Fair Trial: No Extradition by Ireland
2.7 PS: No Cowardice, but Fair Sharing of Responsibility
3. 'Nerves are Getting Tighter and Tenser'
3.1 'The Commissioner General has Ideas but no Staff'
3.1.1 'Time for Action'
3.1.2 'The Commissioner General at the Wailing Wall'
3.2 'Great hordes of East Europeans'
3.3 Third Annual Report: 'Extreme Generosity does not Solve Anything'
3.4 Removing Illegal Aliens and Repartition of Asylum Seekers
3.4.1 The Charters of Edith Cresson
3.4.2 The Lint Reception Centre Hype
3.5 The Law of July 1991 Comes into Force
4. Walid Bennani, an Islamist Refugee from Tunisia
4.1 Ennahdha: A Democratic Fundamentalism?
4.2 False Passport: Refusal of Access to the Territory
4.2.1 My Favourable Opinion
4.2.2 The Minister Disregards my Favourable Opinion
4.2.3 The President of the Tribunal Assists: Deportation Ban
4.2.4 The Conseil d'Etat also Helps: Suspension of the Order
4.3 Access to the Territory, to Leave within Five Days
4.3.1 I Invoke all Possible Arguments
4.3.2 The Minister Persists
4.3.3 Waiting for Suspension and Annulment
4.4 Finally Recognised, but Tunisia Insists
4.5 PS: People's Representative in Tunisia
5. From the 'Charters' Incident to a 'Revue'
5.1 'My Charters'
5.1.1 Reactions to an 'Electroshock'
5.1.2 Appreciated Firmness
5.1.3 The Dust is Settling
5.1.4 The House Justice Committee
5.1.5 PS: Frontex's 'Special Flights'
5.2 Progress could not be Maintained
5.2.1 An Influx of Ex-Yugoslavs
5.2.2 Status of Displaced Persons from the Former Yugoslavia
5.3 The Revue of the Commission General
5.3.1 The Fictional Press Conference
5.3.2 A Monologue on Statistics
5.3.3 The Ghanaians at Petit-Château
6. The Basque-Spanish Couple Moreno-Garcia
6.1 Unfavourable Opinion of the Court on the Extradition Requests
6.2 'A Slap in the Face': Further Examination of their Asylum Applications
6.3 A Thunderbolt: the President of the Tribunal Releases them
6.4 Spanish Relief: Moreno-Garcia not Recognised
6.5 The Permanent Board Takes its Time
6.6 The Turning Point of Stefaan De Clerck: Extradition Granted
6.7 'The Conseil d'Etat Disavows the Minister'
6.8 The Minister Backs out: Extradition Withdrawn
7. No Longer 'Mop under an Open Tap'
7.1 Breakage of the Dyke and Quicksand
7.2. My Alarm is Heard
7.3 Sikhs: Fruit Pickers in South Limburg
7.4 Candidate in the European Elections
7.5 'A Small Fracture in the Tourmalet'
8. Ahmed Zaoui, an Islamist Asylum Seeker from Algeria
8.1 Zaoui and the FIS in Algeria
8.2 First Asylum Application: Exclusion Clause Applied
8.3 The Permanent Board Confirms Exclusion Clause
8.4 Brussels Court of Appeal: Four-Year Conditional Sentence
8.5 Second Asylum Application: No New Elements
8.6 Benothmane's 'Suicide'
8.7 Hot Potato Sent to Switzerland
8.8 Burkina Faso, Malaysia, and New Zeeland
9. 'Malaise at CG' and 'Asylum Seeker "Deceased"'
9.1 'Malaise at the Commission General'
9.1.1 The System of Awarding Points
9.1.2 My Impeachment Requested
9.1.3 'Accusations out of Ignorance, if not Bad Faith'
9.2 Finally, some Good News
9.3 'Failed Asylum Seekers Ill-Treated'
9.3.1 Reactions to Senator Germain Dufour's Accusations
9.3.2 'Marie-Louise Dead in N'djili Jails'
9.3.3 'I Read too many Detective Novels'
9.3.4 'Marie-Louise Risen'
9.3.5 The Seventh Annual Report
10. Seraphin Rwabukumba, Cousin of the Rwandan President
10.1 A Cousin of President Juvenal Habyarimana's Widow
10.2 Departure from Rwanda in a French Military Plane
10.3 Further Examination of his Asylum Application
10.4 'Not a Land of Asylum': Application of the Exclusion Clause
10.5 'Negationist': Permanent Board Confirms Exclusion Clause
10.6 A Web of Asylum Applications
10.7 Order to Leave the Territory: The Conseil d'Etat Blows Hot and Cold
10.8 PS: Regularized, and almost Belgian Citizen
11. I Recognize both too Many and not Enough Refugees
11.1 "Schemes at the Commission General"
11.1.1 Search at the Commission General
11.1.2 Fraud in the Asylum Procedure
11.1.3 Sita and the 'Zairean Network'
11.1.4 Harb and the 'Lebanese Network'
11.1.5 In the End, it was Much to do about Nothing
11.1.6 The First Marshal and the X Witnesses
11.2 Criticism from all Sides
11.2.1 The Leman Centre
11.2.2 The asbl 'Aid to Political Refugees'
11.2.3 Pieter De Gryse: 'Embellish' and 'Blacken'
12. Augustin Ndindiliyimana, Head of the Rwandan Gendarmerie
12.1 My Refusal for Omission
12.2 Recognition by the Permanent Board
12.3 Accused by the Procurator of the International Criminal Tribunal
12.4 Judgement of the Trial Chamber
12.4.1 Saint-Andre College of Kigali and the Kansi Parish
12.4.2 The Responsibility of Ndindiliyimana
12.4.3 Mitigating Factors
12.5 Acquitted by the Appeals Chamber
12.6 PS: Some Observations
13. Unhappy with 'Economic Refugees' and my Status
13.1 The Statement of the Bishops of Belgium
13.1.1 My Letter to the Cardinal
13.1.2 'What about "Economic Refugees"?'
13.1.3 Opinions Expressed in Newspapers
13.1.4 The Bishops Nuance
13.2 The Commissioner General is both Happy and Unhappy
13.2.1 'Satisfied': my Eight Annual Report
13.2.2 Dissatisfied with my Status and that of my Deputies
13.3 En Route to the Court of Arbitration
13.3.1 The European Commission and Court in Strasbourg
13.3.2 My Appointment to the Court of Arbitration
13.4 Some thoughts
13.4.1 My Exit Interview: 'Much hypocrisy and demagogy'
13.4.2 Endless criticism
14. Peixotin, Maiztegui, Moreno-Garcia and Jaione
14.1. Another Basque: Exiled in Venezuela
14.1.1. Peixotin's Complicated Story
14.1.2 Peixotin's Application is 'Moot'
14.1.3 The Demining Works: Peixotin Granted Access to the Territory
14.2 And Another Basque: Exiled in Mexico
14.2.1 Persistent Attempts to Drive him Back to Mexico
14.2.2 Further Examination of an Asylum Application of an EU-Citizen
14.3 Once again Spain: EAW for Moreno and Garcia
14.3.1 Statute-Barred Facts: The Examining Judge Refuses the EAWs
14.3.2 Refusal by the Chamber of Indictment despite Three Cassations
14.3.3 Observations on EAWs against Moreno-Garcia: Relief
14.4 Jaione's Handover: Strasbourg Washes its Hands of the Matter
15. A 'Never-Ending Quest' for Human Resources
15.1 Step by Step Towards Progress
15.1.1 'Savings' that Cost a Lot of Money
15.1.2 A First Reinforcement: too Late and too Little
15.1.3. Minister Louis Tobback (too late) Competent: The Snowball Effect is Triggered
15.1.4 The Turbo of Minister Louis Tobback: From 3,000 to 1,000 Asylum Applications
15.2. 'What have we Learned?'
15.2.1 The 'Snowball Effect'
15.2.2 Costly 'Savings'
15.2.3 The 'Cascade Effect'
15.2.4 The Transfer from Justice to the Interior
15.2.5 The Junction of the Responsibility for the Procedure and for the Reception
16. Asylum Legislation: a 'Ping-Pong' between Legislator and High Courts
16.1 The Gol Law (14 July 1987): Belgium Takes the Asylum Procedure in its Own Hands
16.1.1 The New Refugee Bodies: The French Model
16.1.2 The New Refugee Law: A Cumbersome Procedure
16.2 The Wathelet Law (18 July 1991): Levelling the Angles
16.2.1 Limiting the Ministerial Intervention: A Step in the Right Direction
16.2.2 The Double Five Percent Rule: An Original Attempt
16.3 The Tobback Law (6 May 1993): A Dynamic Approach
16.3.1 The President of the Tribunal has no Jurisdiction: A Rearguard Fight
16.3.2 Enforcement Notwithstanding any Remedy: An Ambivalent Solution
16.3.3 Suspension before the Conseil d'Etat Re-instated A Thunderbolt
16.4 The Asylum Procedure before the Conseil d'Etat: Problems of all Kinds
17. The Conseil d'Etat: The Bottleneck in the Asylum Procedure
17.1 The Vande Lanotte Laws (10 and 15 July 1996): Grunts in the Margin
17.1.1 Adaptation to Dublin and Schengen: No Procedural Relief
17.1.2 Asylum Recourse to the Conseil d'Etat: A 'Useful Remedy'?
17.2 Social Assistance: The Nerve of Asylum
17.2.1 Obligations towards Foreigners Illegally Staying in the Country
17.2.2 The Onkelinx Law (30 December 1992): Confusion on all Floors
17.3 The Judgment of 22 April 1998: The Court of Arbitration Understood it Otherwise
17.3.1 Social Assistance as Long as the Appeals Brought before the Conseil d'Etat are not Decided
17.3.2 The Consequences of the Judgment of 22 April 1998: all Records Broken
17.3.2.1 The Saint-Pierre Hospital: Heart Concerns
17.3.2.2 The Ultimate Skid
18. Semira Adamu, Removals, and Regularizations
18.1. The Death of Semira Adamu: a Drama in Zaventem
18.1.1 Semira Adamu: Figure Head of Resistance against Removals
18.1.2 Her Stay at the Closed Reception Centre 127bis
18.1.3 Reactions to the Death of Semira Adamu
18.1.4 Minister Louis Tobback Resigns
18.2. The Sequels of Semira Adamu: More Human and Efficient
18.2.1 The Commission Vermeersch I: The Inevitable Recourse to Legitimate Violence
18.2.2 The Correctional Tribunal: Heavy Penalties
18.2.3 The Commission Vermeersch II: Ethical Justification for Coercive Measures
18.2.4 'Sudanese Transmigrants Badly Treated': 'Not Truthful'
18.2.5 The Commission Bossuyt: Promoting Transparency and Dialogue
18.3. Regularization Commissions: Multiple Pitfalls
18.3.1 Regularization as a Favour
18.3.2 Regularization as a Right
18.3.3 Status of Candidate-Regularised
18.3.4 A Good Idea only in Appearance
19. Some Reflexions
19.1 The Cases of Famous Asylum Seekers
19.1.1 The IRA Terrorist: Father Ryan
19.1.2 The Four Basques: Moreno-Garcia, Peixotin and Maitegui
19.1.3 Two Islamist Fundamentalists: Bennani and Zaoui
19.1.4 Two Rwandans: Rwabukumba and Ndindilyimana
19.2 Some Anecdotes
19.2.1 Fraud of Nigerian Asylum Seekers
19.2.2 Rwanda, the Land of a Thousand Hills
19.3 The Push and Pull Factors
19.3.1 The Push Factors
19.3.2 The Pull Factors
20. An Extra: Criticism by a 'Renegade'
20.1 Judges on Thin Ice
20.2 The Precursors of Indirect Violations
20.2.1 Moroccan Lt.-Col. Amekrane v. the United Kingdom .
20.2.2 A German from Virginia: Soering v. the United Kingdom
20.3. The Restraint Phase (before Mamatkulov and Askarov)
20.3.1. The first two Asylum Judgments
20.3.2 Protection beyond the Geneva Convention
20.3.3 Slovak Roma: Conka v. Belgium
20.4. Mamatkulov and Askarov v. Turkey: 'An Excess of Power'
21. The Court of Strasbourg as an Asylum Court
21.1 A Congolese DSP Officer and a Credulous Court: N. v. Finland
21.2 Reception in Closed Centres in Belgium
21.2.1 Tabitha: Mubilanzila Mayeka and Kaniki Mitunga
21.2.2 Two Palestinians: Riad and Idiab
21.2.3 A Chechen Mother: Muskhadzhiyeva et al.
21.2.4 A Sri Lankan Mother: Kanagaratnam et al.
21.2.5 A Cameroonian Woman: Yoh-Ekale Mwanje
21.3 Terrorism-Related Belgian Cases
21.3.1 An Iraqi Terrorist Deported to Kurdistan: M.S.
21.3.2 A Tunisian Terrorist Deported to the USA: Trabelsi
21.4 Three Disastrous Judgments
21.4.1 An Afghan Interpreter: M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece
21.4.2 Africans Arriving by Boat: Hirsi Jamaa et al. v. Italy
21.4.3 An Illegal Georgian: Paposhvili v. Belgium
Epilogue
22.1. Twenty-five Years after
22.1.1 The Evolution in Nationalities
22.1.2 Expansion of Beneficiaries of International Protection
22.1.3 The 'Juridictionalisation' of the Asylum Procedure
22.2 European Interference
22.2.1 The Court of Strasbourg
22.2.2 The European Union
22.2.3 The EU Response to the Asylum Crisis
22.3 Is the Present Asylum Model Sustainable?
Bibliography
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