Asylum Legislation and Asylum Applications: A Geographical Analysis of Belgian Asylum Policy by Country of Origin (1992‐2003)
| Author | Frank Witlox,Dirk Vanheule |
| Date | 01 February 2010 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2009.00555.x |
| Published date | 01 February 2010 |
Asylum Legislation and Asylum
Applications: A Geographical
Analysis of Belgian Asylum Policy
by Country of Origin (1992-2003)
Dirk Vanheule* and Frank Witlox**
ABSTRACT
In many European countries a traditional policy and legal response to an
undesirable increase of asylum applications has been the change of asylum
law and procedures. By making it more difficult to obtain asylum and ref-
ugee status, the attractiveness as a possible country of asylum is believed
to diminish. In the period from 1992 to 2003 three major revisions of the
Belgian asylum procedure were enacted. When speaking in absolute figures
these changes resulted in a certain decrease in the number of asylum appli-
cations filed. However, upon a closer examination of the number of asy-
lum applications per country of origin, the effects appeared to be quite
differential. Hence, factors other than geographical ones, such as the loca-
tion of the country of origin or distance, must be decisive for the effect of
a change in legislation on the number of asylum claimants coming from
one particular country. Nevertheless, it has been possible to distinguish
seven clusters of countries of origin where similar developments in patterns
of asylum applications and shifts therein, depending on changes in asylum
law, can be seen.
INTRODUCTION
During the last 15 years, the Belgian legislator has enacted various
amendments to the asylum legislation and procedure, seeking among
other things to limit what is regarded as a problematic increase in
the number of applications for asylum. This seemed necessary because
* Faculty of Law, University of Antwerp, Antwerpen, Belgium.
** Department of Geography, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.
2009 The Authors
Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Journal Compilation 2009 IOM
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK, International Migration Vol. 48 (1) 2010
and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. ISSN 0020-7985
doi:10.1111/j.1468-2435.2009.00555.x
MIGRATION
Edited by Elzbieta Gozdziak, Georgetown University
between 80 per cent and 90 per cent of asylum applications ultimately
failed to lead to recognition of refugee status. Speeding up the asylum
procedure by limiting the number of possible appeals, concentrating the
power of decision making, and introducing additional grounds for the
inadmissibility of an application have all been introduced in order to
shorten the temporary stay of asylum seekers in Belgium, and thus to
reduce the attractiveness of this status for people who are not refugees
according to the terms of the Refugee Convention.
1
This contribution investigates whether and to what extent the amend-
ments to the asylum legislation have brought about a significant change
in the number of applications for asylum. This study considers not only
on the total number of asylum applications, but also the patterns of
change in numbers according to the group or nationality of the persons
requesting asylum in Belgium. By ‘‘asylum applications,’’ or – to use a
term closer to the language of the Belgian legislation – ‘‘ requests for
recognition of refugee status,’’ we mean applications for recognition of
refugee status as defined in Title II, chapter 2 of the Aliens Act of
15 December 1980.
2
In this paper we will present in turn: the collection of data and associ-
ated problems, a brief outline of the development of Belgian asylum
law, the method developed in order to link the data on the number of
asylum applications with the legislative amendments, an enquiry into
whether each change in the law has had the same effect, and finally, a
synthesis of the most significant findings.
DATA COLLECTION
The relevant authorities
The period covered by this research is a limited one. One could go back
to 1980, a significant year since it was on 15 December of that year that
the Aliens Act was adopted. This law contains, in Title II chapter 2, the
criteria that govern the procedure still in use today in the recognition of
refugee status.
For the period from 1980 until today, two different institutions have
collected and stored the data relating to the number of asylum seekers.
From 1980 to 1988, when the jurisdiction for making decisions regard-
ing recognition was transferred to the Brussels representative of the
130 Vanheule and Witlox
2009 The Authors
Journal Compilation 2009 IOM
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