This website provides information on the Jesuit Refugee Service - Belgium (JRS-Belgium) and a brief presentation on the history, the projects and partners of the Belgian branch of JRS-International.
If you wish to support or contact JRS-Belgium, you can send an e-mail to our Brussels headquarters via this site.
Finally, you will also find several useful links to other websites on asylum and migration issues.
Petition for the issue of the legalisation criteria
Sign the petition to ask the responsibles of our government to issue the criteria for the legalisation of undocumented people and to apply them as soon as possible. The aim is to collect 100.000 signatures.
You can sign the petition on-line or download it here and send it back to the secretariat of FAM, rue Maurice Liétart 31/4, 1150 Bruxelles -
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Asserting rights in closed centres
This is the title of the report that was published by JRS-Belgium and a number of other organisations in November 2008. The report examines the legal aid in the detention centres and makes 50 recommendations for the Aliens' Board, the centre staff, and the lawyers, in order to improve the access to legal aid in the detention centres.
You can click here to read the complete report in French.
Click here to read the summary in French.
Belgium condemned by European Court of Human Rights
In its arrest of 24 January 2008, the European Court of Human Rights condemns Belgium for having placed two Palestinians in the transit zone of Brussels airport, although several tribunals had ordered to release them. In 2003, JRS-Belgium gave a financial support to make this appeal possible.
You can read the press release from the NGO's who supported the appeal here.
To read the full text of the arrest, click here.
Belgian State indicted for detention of children in closed centres
On the initiative of a group Belgian citizens, an opinion's court will be installed. On 17 and 18 January 2008, the Belgian State will appear in this court for the detention of children in closed centres for foreigners. The judgement will be pronounced on 19 January 2008. The session is open for the public. For more information, click here or read the website http://www.dei-belgique.be/index.php. This initiative is supported by JRS-Belgium.
For children only: a petition against the detention of children in closed centres
With the support of UNICEF-Belgium and other organisations, among which JRS-Belgium, 10 children launched a petition to ask Belgium to stop the detention of children in closed centres. Attention: this petition is meant to be signed by children only. You can download the petition formular here and send it back to UNICEF before 30 March 2008.
JRS-Belgium supports this petition in the frame of its action against the detention of families with children during the months November and December 2007: the carte blanche and the Saint Nicolas action.
