In what is thought to be a historic judgement, Belgium has granted refugee status to Mamadou Bah, a 40-year-old Guinean forced to flee Greece in fear for his life.
The Office of the General Commissioner for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRA) gave the good news to Bah on 16 May 2014 who described the ruling as “a wonderful victory”.
The announcement was only made public after one month, earlier in June, as the decision was still open to appeal during a 30-day period by Maggie de Block, the Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum, Immigration and Social Integration.
Since no appeal was submitted, Bah can now live and work in Belgium.
He is also free to travel in Europe, but has told Equal Times that he will avoid going back to Greece for the moment.
“This victory has given me back the strength to wage my battle. It starts now," he says.
Bah plans to continue to fight for immigrants in Greece who, day after day, face persecution, humiliation and attacks, and where the extreme-right Golden Dawn party won nearly 10 per cent of the vote in the recent European elections.
It was after suffering a violent physical assault, discrimination and death threats, that Bah fled Greece – where he already had refugee status – and went to Belgium in October 2013.
Arguing that Greece was unable to protect him from Golden Dawn, he embarked on the procedures to seek asylum in Belgium.
"This decision is huge"
"Mamadou’s case is unique," insists Olivier Stein, Bah’s lawyer, shortly before his client’s hearing with the CGRA in February 2014.
Indeed, as many legal experts specialising in asylum law have pointed out, it would be the first time that a country in the European Union granted political refugee status to a person under threat in another EU country.
“The challenge is to show that Belgium is pointing the finger at Greece for being incapable of ensuring the safety of its immigrants,” explains Denis Desbonnet, coordinator of Bah’s support committee.
“This decision comes right in the middle of the Greek presidency of the European Union and demonstrates that the rule of law no longer actually applies in Greece. It’s huge.”
Belgium is, however, very careful not to condemn Greece publicly.
When contacted by telephone, the CGRA told Equal Times: “We do not comment on specific cases.”
It also refuses to say whether such a precedent has already been set or if the Bah case is a first.
When pushed, it limits itself to referring to the law of 15 December 1980, which establishes that refugee status can be granted in two different countries in exceptional circumstances.
As the CGRA does not set out the grounds for its decision, there is uncertainty over whether Bah could have secured refugee status based solely on what he went through in Guinea.
“During my first hearing, the CGRA only questioned me about what I had gone through in Greece, and nothing about the persecution in Guinea,” says Bah.
“They told us that was sufficient. But then they called me back again three months later to question me about Guinea [Editor’s note: Bah left Guinea for fear that his father would kill him].
“They did that to cover themselves and to make it seem that if the response were positive, it wouldn’t be only because of the persecution in Greece. But there is no doubt in my mind, the decision taken by Belgium shows that Greece is incapable of protecting its immigrants.”
For Stein, there is also no doubt that Mamadou secured refugee status based on the persecution he suffered in Greece.
“The CGRA’s decision clearly implies that Greece is either not capable of protecting him, or is at the root of the persecution,” he says.
“I don’t think there is any doubt that by taking this decision the CGRA is saying that the persecution in Greece has been established. It is because the persecution in Greece had been proven that he was then questioned about what he went through in Guinea."
On contacting the Greek embassy in Belgium to ask about Greece’s reaction to the judgement, Equal Times was told: “We are aware of the decision but will not comment on the asylum procedures of another member state,’ said the embassy’s spokesperson Konstantinos Pappas.
Having won the legal battle, the fight for the immigrants living in Greece will now shift to the political arena. ‘The fight is not over. This legal decision needs to be used to move things forward,” says Desbonnet.
This could mean giving Greece greater assistance with handling immigration.
“I don’t want to put the blame on Greece. But the situation is unbearable for immigrants there, as several European bodies have said. And rather than helping the country to manage the situation better, austerity policies are imposed on it,” laments Stein.
