Demanding regularisation and a work permit, the 450 undocumented migrants occupying the Beguinage Church and the facilities of the VUB and ULB suspended their hunger strike, which began two months ago, on Wednesday 21 July. This event and the creation of a neutral zone within the Beguinage Church gave hope to many undocumented migrants, who thought that a collective regularisation would be announced by the government.
The strikers will be able to obtain information on their case, to demonstrate elements of anchorage, vulnerability and residence, allowing the granting of an A permit via the 9bis procedure.
Despite this temporary solution to the crisis, the Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Sammy Mahdi (CD&V), launched an information campaign on social networks following the appearance of numerous rumours announcing a collective regularisation.
Indeed, he explains that “false rumours are circulating on this subject. There is no change in the regularisation policy”.
In order to counteract this “fake news”, as the Secretary of State calls it, “civil society organisations and bar associations have also received this information. In this way, they can properly inform people who suddenly think they have a better chance of being regularised.
Therefore, despite the hunger strike of undocumented migrants, no decision to open a regularisation for undocumented migrants has been taken by the Belgian government so far.
Of course, our law firm supports the adoption of a law specifying clear criteria for regularisation. We are following the news very closely and will keep you informed if a law on regularisation is passed.
If you wish to be kept informed of changes in the law, please subscribe to our newsletter, indicating your e-mail address at the bottom of our homepage.
Similarly, if you nevertheless wish to submit a file for security reasons and in the event that a regularisation law is passed in the future, we invite you to first complete the questionnaire for making an appointment by clicking on the following link :
Please specify in the questionnaire that you would like an appointment for a residence permit application.
As soon as you have sent the questionnaire, you can then contact the secretariat on 02/5031217 from Monday to Friday from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm and from 1.30 pm to 5 pm in order to make an appointment with one of my colleagues, both of whom are specialised in this type of case.
We will then receive you in consultation to check whether you meet the conditions for a stay procedure and will make the necessary recommendations, if necessary and in full transparency.
Take care of yourself!