“Man is worth his word or worth nothing. “ On Wednesday November 3, these words drawn in red felt on a white sheet were hung at the entrance of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste-au-Béguinage church, nestled in the heart of Brussels and become the meeting place, and even the home of undocumented people who are fighting to obtain their regularization. “That’s our message for the secretary [d’Etat à l’asile et à la migration, Sammy Mahdi] “, thundered before the press Mohammed, a young Moroccan at the dawn of his thirties, who fell from a height when he received, like others, a negative response to his request for regularization.
After 60 days of mobilization and several meetings with the authorities, some 450 undocumented migrants agreed to suspend their hunger strike in July, believing they had obtained guarantees for a more “humane” treatment of their cases. They were disillusioned in recent days, when the first twenty decisions of the Aliens Office, almost all negative, fell. This raises fears of the worst for the rest of the 414 applications submitted since August.
Sitting on a bench outside the church, a burgundy sweater over her shoulders, Nehza does not seem to feel the cold that pierces the bones in this month of November. ” I do not understand. I do not understand why “, repeats this 52-year-old Moroccan woman, upset by the refusal received from the Foreigners Office. Forcibly married at 17, she left her country and a violent husband and thought she had presented a concrete case: French and Dutch acquired, involvement in several associations, various jobs for twelve years in Belgium and promises of employment. “We work like crazy”, sighs Nehza, tired from a life spent dreaming of a day’s vacation and taking every precaution not to come across a police check.
A discretionary power deemed arbitrary
Nehza’s case has become a symbol of the discretionary power – and denounced as arbitrary – enjoyed by the Office for Foreigners, subject to the authority of Sammy Mahdi, in decisions on the regularizations of undocumented migrants. At the beginning of October, his lawyer had been able to take note of an internal note concerning his file. In it, the list of arguments in favor of its regularization spanned more than one page. Nothing was in the adverse elements box. However, a few lines below, the “refusal” option was checked. In a final gesture of despair, Nehza then started a hunger strike again. In vain.
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