Belgian Bricks for Fortress Europe: Comment on the New Refugee Law after a Judgment of the Cour d'Arbitrage

The authors examine the modifications of the Belgian refugee law, introduced on 6 May 1993. Those modifications follow the annulment of the so-called double 5% rule by the Court of Arbitration. That rule required that refugees from certain countries submit proof of a well-founded fear of persecution before their request for refugee status could even be considered admissible. That rule comprises two notions, namely, that of the manifestly unfounded claim and the safe country of origin. Annulled because it introduced a discrimination between refugees according to their country of origin, the rul... Mehr ...