Over 1,000 Cameroonians seeking asylum in Belgium within six months!.

Roosemont expressed concern during a press conference in Yaounde yesterday. He revealed that within the past six months alone, over 1,000 applicants from Cameroon have requested for asylum in the European nation. 

The visiting official said his outing was meant to raise alarm on the dangers of illegal migration. 

According to him, the government of Belgium cannot cope with the rising figures. He stated that there are with tens of thousands of applications files piling up, awaiting a case-by-case decision.  

He regretted that asylum applications from Cameroonians have reached outrageous levels over the years; despite what he said are the peace and stability in Cameroon. Roosemont said only a few Cameroonians who come seeking for asylum end up getting a refugee status in Belgium.

The Belgian Immigration Office Director General, said in the last decade, the number of asylum seekers were around 400. Last year, the figures, he said, doubled with 800 applications registered.

“Answers to asylum applications will be negative”

 This year, he said, over 1,000 requests have been made by Cameroonians. A majority of the applicants, he noted, are French-speaking from the cities of Yaounde and Douala.

 “The number of asylum seekers in Belgium is going up. Cameroon is for me a stable country with a democratic system. A country where there is no violence. There is no persecution in the sense of the Geneva Convention. So the need for asking asylum in Belgium is not there. And because it is not there, the answers will be negative,” Roosemont said. 

Roosemont mentioned that although Belgium remains committed to respecting the Geneva Convention relating to asylum seekers, a majority of the requests from Cameroonians do not meet requirements. 

Most of these persons, he revealed, were based on economic grounds which are not taken into consideration.  

He also disclosed that most of those who seek asylum do not possess passports. This, he said, implies the concerned entered Belgium illegally.

Embarking on a clandestine trip to Belgium, the official said, is “costly and dangerous”. 

Student visa applications witness increase

It was revealed during the press conference that the demands for student visas have also skyrocketed in recent years. 

Statistics do not make pleasant reading. According to official figures from the DG of the Belgium Immigration Office, Cameroon provides a third of the entire visa applications around the world. 

The Central African nation, he said, has more applications than those of other countries including Morocco, China and even the United States of America, USA. 

To make matters worse, Freddy Roosemont revealed most of the documents required to submit an application file are forged. 

Also, in certain cases, he noted that some ‘ill-intentioned Cameroonian students want to enter Belgium to stay there illegally’. Others, Roosemont noted, seldom attend lectures or sit exams. 

Consequently, he said, they record shambolic results in schools with only 10 per cent success for first year students. 

“The number of applications is abnormally high. Secondly, a lot of applications are done with fake documents like diplomas and bank attestations. When they get the visa and get into Belgium, they almost never go to school and never present themselves during exams. They are not really motivated. They take the place of someone who can be motivated. Every country wants motivated students,” Roosemont said. 

Stringent measures to curb irregular migration 

The visiting Director General also announced stringent measures to fight against the practice and limit the numbers. 

He mentioned that procedures to acquire visas to Belgium shall be more rigorous with multiple checks. 

Each document, he said, shall be verified not only when it is submitted but also when crossing the border. Controls aimed at detecting forged documents, he said, are being intensified. 

Candidates will also have to explain their study programmes and prove that the studies chosen are related to their previous studies. 

Belgium, the official said, also intends to sanction people who use asylum and study procedures with a view of staying in Europe. He said such persons will be ordered to leave the country. 

He also said, such persons may also be banned for several years from visiting or staying in any European Union country.