State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor announced on Monday that she has asked for the refugee status of a man from Afghanistan to be re-examined due to cases of hate speech.
The man – identified by Belga News Agency as Jamil Qadery – is an Afghan national and had been granted refugee status. However, on Youtube and Twitter he distributes videos glorifying the Taliban regime. Some recordings were made on the Brussels Grand Place, MP Georges Dallemagne, who questioned Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden on the matter last week, told Sudinfo.
De Moor is in contact with the public prosecutor's office and security forces; she pointed out that "the asylum procedure serves to protect people at risk of war or persecution, not those guilty of hate speech". The minister has asked the Office of the Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) to "re-examine this person's refugee status".
The Commissioner General may revoke refugee status in cases such as this.
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The CGRS always conducts a thorough individual examination when granting asylum status in addition to a security check for each person applying for international protection in Belgium.
If there is hate speech or serious reason to believe that an asylum seeker has committed crimes against humanity or war crimes, the CGRS can exclude them from protection status. This can also be done if evidence of such acts emerges after the protection status has been granted.
