Belgium Passes Law Allowing Immigration Police Raids on Private Homes for Deportations
Belgian lawmakers have approved legislation that will allow law enforcement to conduct early morning immigration raids to carry out deportations of foreign criminals and illegal migrants.
The legislation, which was supported by the New Flemish Alliance-led coalition government in Brussels and the centre-right liberal Anders party, will allow for police to enter private residences between 5 am and 9 am and to detain migrants facing deportation, the EU-funded Infomigrants website reported.
The law notably allows for raids to be carried out on the homes of friends, relatives, or others who are believed to be hosting migrants with deportation orders.
Despite over a year of heated debate surrounding the topic, in which left-wing opponents claimed that it would result in Belgium’s immigration police becoming akin to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under President Donald Trump, the legislation remained largely popular.
Indeed, a survey from human rights activist group 11.11.11. found that 53 per cent of Belgians backed the move by the De Wever government, according to the Brussels Times.
Previously, Minister for Asylum and Migration Anneleen Van Bossuyt of the governing New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), argued that the law was necessary to ensure that immigration enforcement could occur.
“Anyone residing here illegally who poses a threat to public order or national security must be able to be removed from the country,” Minister Van Bossuyt argued in July.
“This must no longer be a taboo subject when the safety of our people is at stake. It is unacceptable that ‘illegal’ criminals can still evade deportation today by hiding behind their front doors,” she said, adding that the law will ensure that “our authorities will no longer be powerless.”
The migration minister also warned local authorities not to attempt to defy the federal government, despite it already being required by law for local police to cooperate with immigration authorities.
“After years of political opposition and disinformation, the law on entering homes will finally come into force soon. Yet many mayors are already announcing that they do not want to cooperate. My message to them is clear: If you refuse to cooperate and things go wrong, do not point the finger at the federal level afterward. You are putting the safety of your own residents at risk,” Van Bossuyt said.
The legislation is part of a broader push by Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s conservative coalition government to reduce immigration, including plans to place limits on family reunification migration, otherwise known as chain migration. The government has also pitched plans to impose five year waiting period before migrants will become eligible for social benefits schemes.
To that end, Minister Van Bossuyt was even deployed this week to the African nation of Cameroon to try to dissuade potential ill migrants from attempting to reach Belgium.
“Belgium is no migrant’s paradise. Four out of five student visa applications and nine out of ten asylum applications are rejected. Yet young people are lured to Belgium with false promises. I want to discourage illegal migration,” she said.
Meanwhile, the European Union has also changed its law to allow for increased deportations, including a change to rules last month that will allow for member states to construct deportation hubs in third-party countries outside of the EU, meaning that illegals will potentially no longer have to be held on European soil while they await deportation. The plan has been heavily lobbied for by Giorgia Meloni’s conservative government in Italy, which previously sought to establish such a returns hub for illegals in Albania before facing legal challenges at the European Court of Justice.
