ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The report was researched and compiled by Carine Rustom and Quentin Schoonvaere.
Véronique de Ryckere and Frances Nicholson at UNHCR’s Regional Representation for
Western Europe in Brussels initiated and supervised the project on behalf of UNHCR, in
partnership with Julie Lejeune and Koen Dewulf of the Centre for Equal Opportunities and
Opposition to Racism in Belgium in collaboration with the Research Centre in Population and
Societies of the Catholic University of Louvain.
The research team is most grateful to all the individuals who agreed to be interviewed
for the project, to share their experiences, and give permission for their immigration files
to be analysed. Their contribution has been essential to the report. All their names have
been changed in the report to protect their anonymity. The team wishes to thank all the
organizations and lawyers that referred participants for interview.
The generous contribution of expertise and time given by the members of the expert
consultative panel, comprising Professor Gerard-René de Groot, Philippe Leclerc, Julie
Lejeune, Mark Manly, Nicolas Perrin, Bernadette Renauld, Professor Dirk Vanheule, Nick
Vanderscheuren, and Ruben Wissing, has also been greatly appreciated. The research team
is likewise grateful to Professors Jean-Yves Carlier and Marie-Claire Foblets, who contributed
their views and expertise through two interviews.
Thanks are due too to the many individuals who devoted their time and expertise to this
study but who are too numerous to name here individually: namely staff of the office of
the Secretary of State for Migration and Asylum Policy, the Ministry of Justice, the Aliens
Office, the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons, various tribunals
and courts, the Federal Ombudsman, civil registries, non-governmental organizations, and
various lawyers.
Within UNHCR, special thanks are owed to Tarek Abou Chabake, Mirna Adjami, Paolo Artini,
Jorunn Brandvoll, Aintzane de Aguirre, Radha Govil, Wilbert van Hövell, Shannon Kahnert,
Houria Kembouche, Catherine Keuning, Philippe Leclerc, Mark Manly, Pascale Moreau,
Vanessa Saenen, Liesbeth Schockaert, Inge Sturkenboom, Melita Šunjić, Emilie Wiinblad, and
Pamela Williams for their contributions to the project and/or the preparation and finalization
of the report, as well as to UNHCR interns Ine Declerck, Véronique Delahaye, Julie Latour,
Cristiano Nogueira Antunes, Laure Philippe-Kagan, Antoine Thillaye du Boullay, Rob van de
Westelaken, Evelyne Van Der Elst, and Antoinette Van Vyve, who provided valuable project
support and coordination.
Finally, the research team would like to thank Alexandra McDowall, Henri Nickels, and Nick
Oakeshott for their valuable advice in designing the project as well as Philippa Youngman for
editing the report and Catherine Delebecq and BD Consult for the translations of the report
into French and Dutch, and Tomáš Bakoš for the graphic design.
October 2012