A European call for regularisation and dignity

We, civic actors from across Europe and Members of the European Parliament are calling on the Belgian government to meet their commitments stated this summer to the negotiators of the Union des Sans-Papiers pour la Régularisation (USPR).

In July 2021, the State Secretary for Migration stated that the hunger strikers’ applications would be considered admissible and fully reviewed and that proof of prior employment, including undeclared work, would be considered positively. This ended a 56 day-long hunger strike and built hope among those asking their fundamental rights to be respected.

4 months later strikers started to get negative answers with government compromises not respected. People whose applications have been refused, have also been given an obligation to leave the territory, and are at greater risk of detention and deportation. Police harassment has increased on the strikers, especially on spokespersons, who are regularly stopped, their identities checked and picked up by the police and then released.

The case of undocumented people in Belgium is not an exception; the lives of undocumented people in many situations across Europe are at stake. Migrants in Calais are also currently undertaking hunger strikes. All around Europe, migrants are victims of systematic violations of fundamental rights and blackmail strategies between countries, as in the EU-Belarus border. Further to this, the coming Pact on Asylum and Migration will exacerbate the challenges and worsen the situation of undocumented migrants across Europe.

Everyone should have access to basic rights and dignity, irrespective of their migration status.

It is urgent to support undocumented people and to uphold their rights. And it is even more urgent in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In light of all this:

• We call on the Belgian government to, firstly, go back to their promises before the strikers and evaluate their demands based on clear criteria. Secondly, to put forward a concrete and durable policy on regularisation.
• We call on the European Institutions to enforce the Conventions Member States are signatories of, notably the European Convention of Human Rights.

For more information on the Union des Sans-Papiers pour la Régularisation, please find a briefing here.

Signatories