BRUSSELS (The Thursday Times) — Belgium has approved a law allowing police to enter homes, by force if necessary, to detain migrants who have been ordered to leave the country, prompting rights groups to warn of raids like those carried out by US immigration agents.
MPs passed the law last Friday, and it is set to take effect next spring. Police, accompanied by immigration office staff, will be able to enter the home of someone barred from remaining in Belgium, or another residence where the person is living, to make an arrest. An investigating judge must authorise each entry, which can take place without the residents’ consent between 5am and 9pm, and police may call a locksmith if needed. Once inside, officers can detain people and search for identity documents.
The law targets people “subject to a removal order” or “liable to pose a threat to public order and national security”, including those whose asylum claims have been rejected. Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt called it “historic”. “If an individual represents a danger to our society, our services must be able to intervene,” she said, rejecting any suggestion of a “witch hunt against undocumented migrants”.
‘A law of fear’
More than 60 protests were held across Belgium before the vote, and around 20 rights groups, as well as judges’ and lawyers’ associations, criticised the measures. Critics say the law is vague about what counts as a threat to public order, leaving that to individual judges, and gives people no way to appeal.
“It’s a law of fear. It really disseminates fear,” said Carine Thibaut, director of Amnesty International’s French-speaking Belgian section. “The home is inviolable. This constitutional principle should never depend on the administrative status of those who live there,” the rights groups said in a joint statement.
Chiara Catelli of the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants said: “We’ve all seen the devastating consequences of home raids in the US, where they fuel fear and violence and tear families apart. It’s deeply alarming that an EU member state is now moving in the same direction.” She said similar measures already existed in the Netherlands and Germany, and that the EU’s recently approved returns regulation contained comparable provisions.
In the United States, arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have risen sharply under President Donald Trump. This week a Chicago father died hours after ICE deported him to Pakistan.
