Caritas International, along with a number of other associations, lawyers and doctors, has contributed to the drafting of the White Paper on medical residence permits (9b): The law respecting the human rights of seriously ill foreigners, a multidisciplinary process that led to recommendations to the attention of the Aliens and Policy Office.
This White Paper, available here, outlines a dozen cases that are unacceptable to the many signatories and pinpoint the dysfunctions of the procedure.
However, before the White Paper reaches its full potential, field workers continue to be confronted with seriously ill people whose illegal status means that a return to the country would mean a significant or even irreversible deterioration in their health. For these people, we have to find both administrative and social solutions here and now.
This is why Caritas International has published a Word in exile on this theme which attempts to expose in a simple and clear legal language the different options still available to this category of foreigners. Part I of the Exiled Word relates to the application for residence authorization on the basis of Article 9 ter of the Law of 15 December 1980 and the remedies attached thereto. Part II of the Word of Exile deals with the social rights of seriously ill aliens.
To review these documents, please see the links below.
-Word to exile: What rights still to mobilize for seriously ill aliens in Belgium?
-Part I: Application for authorization to stay on the basis of Article 9ter and remedies
-Part II: Social rights of seriously ill aliens