First evidence of Turkish visa fraud: already 38 suspicious files withdrawn | Interior

The 700 permits had all been given the green light by the Flemish administration and the federal Immigration Office (DVZ). The presentation by the Belgian consulates in Turkey and Morocco was merely a formality. Still, the consulates had their doubts, after which they decided to pull the brakes. That happened in October 2022. Since then, the applications have been blocked. 100 permits are also stuck in Brussels and Wallonia.

In concrete terms, the administration canceled six suspicious Turkish permits after a visit by the Flemish social inspectorate to the employer in question. The Inspectorate found that previously submitted applications did not correlate with the situation on site, or that certain rules were being violated. As a result, all other applications from the employer were also cancelled.

Two other suspicious requests were rejected after a similar inspection by the control room. This is an extra watchdog that was specially set up after all kinds of abuses came to light last summer at the yard of chemical company Borealis in the port of Antwerp.

According to the Brouns cabinet, the withdrawals are separate from the fuss surrounding the Turkish permits. The checks carried out had been planned for some time, it sounds. “We followed standard procedure.”

Ben Segers, migration specialist for the Vooruit opposition party, finds it “unimaginable that Minister Brouns calls this the standard procedure”. “Flanders must take matters into their own hands and must not depend on the chance encountering abuses afterwards,” he says. “Brouns cannot wait for another Borealis case, but must check the applications much more thoroughly at the gate, via the Department of Economic Migration.”