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Here's the story. A friend – I will call her Caroline – got in touch after a silence of several years. We used to work together back in the day, and had become sort-of-friends. We had stayed in touch through a common friend, who, like me, lives in Brussels. Caroline herself, who lived in the US when we worked together, was now back to France.
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Malik managed to get his family into Egypt via Rafah. Thanks to Caroline's invitation, he obtained a tourist visa for the family to go to the USA.
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It turned out we could, a little bit. Mostly with information, and by giving him someone that he could call, a friendly voice in the New Place.
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It turns out that Belgium has an "airport track" for asylum seekers, and that it becomes very fast when minor children are involved. Malik and his family were first made to wait, and yes, after a long flight from the US and with two small children that's not a joke.
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That weekend, my girlfriend, who had taken point on the whole Malik initiative, went to meet the family and take Malik and the children to Antwerp (one of the adults is supposed to be in the provided apartments at all time).
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But check this out: they had an appointment with the Federal asylum for the intake interview service *on the next Monday*.
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