Court of Audit on work permit fraud: ‘Rules are not always strictly applied’
The Court of Audit has submitted its report on combined work and residence permits to the Flemish Parliament. It finds that while controls have improved considerably after several recent incidents of visa fraud, the relevant departments do not always apply the regulations strictly.
The Single Permit for Work and Residence allows non-EU nationals to live and work in Belgium for more than 90 days. Instead of applying separately for a work permit and a residence permit, both are processed together.
In 2022, reports came in from the Belgian consulates in Istanbul in Türkiye and Rabat in Morocco about possible fraud in applications for the permit.
The consulate in Türkiye had launched an investigation after dozens of suspected victims of human trafficking were found at a construction site of chemical company Borealis in the port of Antwerp in the summer of 2022. These included people from Türkiye.
The consulate had also noticed a sudden increase in the number of applications for the permit. The issuing of visas was temporarily suspended and the Court of Audit was asked to conduct an investigation. The report has now been delivered to the Flemish Parliament.
"Everything depends on the attentiveness of case handlers"
First, the court concludes that the competent services – the federal Immigration Office and the Flemish Economic Migration service – did tighten their controls after the scandals. Cooperation between the two services, which, according to employees of the administrations, was virtually non-existent, has also improved.
Lack of time
The report also exposes some problems. It appears, for instance, that in some cases the two bodies still do not apply the rules strictly. This is often because of practical considerations, such as lack of time. European rules oblige a country to automatically grant a permit if an application cannot be processed within four months.
The court says automatic approval without full checks carries “serious risks”. Such cases may involve high-risk files, requiring extensive investigation by State Security.
The Flemish Economic Migration service automatically approves applications for a number of positions on the list of bottleneck jobs without seeing if the employer has made sufficient effort to find local candidates, who are often available.
In addition, there are no local control mechanisms in high-risk countries and consular posts are not sufficiently encouraged to suspend visa issuance and inform the Immigration Office in case of uncertainty.
The Court of Audit also finds that the agencies still do not carry out enough systematic and overarching analyses, which are necessary for risk detection or to inform policy adjustments.
Patterns of abuse
For example, foreign workers are insufficiently monitored after their entry and it is often unknown whether they end up overstaying their visa. The Flemish Economic Migration service also makes too little use of information from other files and applications to systematically uncover patterns of abuse.
“Everything depends on the attentiveness of case handlers,” the report reads. It should be noted, however, that the Flemish office does not have access to the documents of equivalent migration services from Belgium’s other regions.
In 2023, 779 single permits were revoked by the administration. It is unclear how many of these involved fraud.
#FlandersNewsService | © BELGA PHOTO ERIC LALMAND
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