Bossuyt | Right to Asylum | Buch | 978-1-5099-8267-7 | www.sack.de

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 238 mm, Gewicht: 640 g

Bossuyt

Right to Asylum

Between Demagogy and Hypocrisy
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-1-5099-8267-7
Verlag: Hart Publishing

Between Demagogy and Hypocrisy

Buch, Englisch, 336 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 160 mm x 238 mm, Gewicht: 640 g

ISBN: 978-1-5099-8267-7
Verlag: Hart Publishing


This book provides insight into the realities of, and right to, asylum from the frontiers of refugee law, as observed by a key practitioner, academic and policy-maker in the field.

The book combines expert analysis and first-hand testimony. Written by one of the giants in the field, the first Belgian Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons, it blends the professional and the personal, to give a candid, compelling account of how asylum law has developed over the last quarter century. It looks back at some of the key cases of asylum, but also forward, suggesting how Europe might address current challenges such as deportation and regularisation.

All lawyers, practitioners and policy-makers in the field of refugee law and policy will find this required reading.

Bossuyt Right to Asylum jetzt bestellen!

Autoren/Hrsg.


Weitere Infos & Material


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. Séraphin Rwabukumba, Cousin of the Rwandan President

10.1 A Cousin of President Juvénal 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-André 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

Register of Persons


Bossuyt, Marc
Marc Bossuyt is Professor emeritus of International Law (University of Antwerp), Honorary Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons, President emeritus of the Constitutional Court of Belgium.

Marc Bossuyt is Professor emeritus of International Law (University of Antwerp), Honorary Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons, President emeritus of the Constitutional Court of Belgium.



Ihre Fragen, Wünsche oder Anmerkungen
Vorname*
Nachname*
Ihre E-Mail-Adresse*
Kundennr.
Ihre Nachricht*
Lediglich mit * gekennzeichnete Felder sind Pflichtfelder.
Wenn Sie die im Kontaktformular eingegebenen Daten durch Klick auf den nachfolgenden Button übersenden, erklären Sie sich damit einverstanden, dass wir Ihr Angaben für die Beantwortung Ihrer Anfrage verwenden. Selbstverständlich werden Ihre Daten vertraulich behandelt und nicht an Dritte weitergegeben. Sie können der Verwendung Ihrer Daten jederzeit widersprechen. Das Datenhandling bei Sack Fachmedien erklären wir Ihnen in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.