BRUSSELS (AP) – Belgium’s immigration minister is refusing to grant humanitarian visas to a family in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo despite being fined 4,000 euros ($4,438) a day for defying an appeal tribunal.
A lawyer for the family, Olivier Stein, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the Belgian tribunal ruled three times that visas should be granted to the two adults with children aged 5 and 8 living in one of Syria’s most dangerous cities.
Immigration Minister Theo Francken, whose office supervises Belgium’s visa authority, has been visited by a bailiff directed by the tribunal, demanding 1,000 euros per person for each day that visas are not delivered. The tally so far is more than 30,000 euros ($33,000). The bailiff could confiscate goods to pay the fines.
“We’re going to use all possible legal means to fight this affair. This is going too far,” Francken told state broadcaster RTBF on Tuesday.
Friends in the city of Namur have offered to lodge and feed the family. But Francken said their links with the would-be refugees are tenuous and that granting visas could set a precedent that would open the floodgates to other demands. He also believes the government and not courts should rule on visa policy.