A Belgian court has upheld a ban to deport two Iranian cousins, despite an appeal from Belgium's State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole De Moor. Another court had previously ordered their release from a Flemish asylum centre. This was not respected by authorities.
Until the decision (made on Tuesday) both asylum seekers had faced expulsion since the start of the year. Belgian authorities threatened to put them on a plane back to their home country of Iran.
But in light of the ongoing uprising in the country, the men refused to board the plane, with people gathering at the Brussels Airport in Zaventem to protest the planned deportation.
The issue was subsequently taken to court, which ruled that they had no right to be detained and ordered their immediate release. The court argued that both men were being detained "unjustly" at a closed asylum centre in the Flemish municipality of Steenokkerzeel.
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Nonetheless, authorities pursued their plans to deport the cousins with an appeal lodged by De Moor. This was rejected on Tuesday.
One of the asylum seekers will now be heard by the General Commissariat for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRA), where they will once again apply for asylum in Belgium.
