European Court backs Francken in refugee visa case

The European Court of Justice (EJC) in Luxembourg has upheld the decision by federal asylum and migration secretary Theo Francken not to issue a humanitarian visa to a family in Syria wanting to come to Belgium to claim asylum. Francken himself said he was satisfied with the ruling, while organisations representing the rights of refugees said they are “very uneasy”.

A humanitarian visa allows a person to legally travel to the country concerned in order to apply for asylum. Francken has repeatedly refused to issue such a visa to the family from Aleppo. The family took the decision to the courts, where Francken was ordered to issue the visa.

He appealed, but the ruling was upheld, and Francken (pictured) was ordered to pay a penalty of €4,000 a day for every day he did not approve the visa. Now the decision by the EJC overrules both of those rulings.

The court found that a member state cannot be forced to issue a humanitarian visa, whether or not the applicants are in serious danger. “I am satisfied,” Francken told VRT. “This was an important case, a European precedent. It was anyone’s guess what the verdict might be; even the advocate-general was against us. But now judges at the highest level have taken our side.”

The case is indeed one of the rare occasions in which the full court does not align with the opinion issued by the advocate-general.

Local organisation representing the rights of refugees – Amnesty International, Ciré, Doctors of the World and the NGO 11.11.11 – issued a joint statement. “This is a great disappointment,” they said. “We had hoped the court would follow the opinion of its advocate-general. We are very concerned about the consequences of this ruling for the member states.”

Photo: Bart Dewaele/N-VA