The N-VA wants a legal framework for entry into residential premises and no ban on the repatriation of illegal immigrants with minor children

To address the loud calls among the population for a serious return policy, Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor submitted a bill to the Chamber of Representatives on September 20. But what emerges? Her draft makes the forced return of illegal immigrants even more difficult. The Vivaldi coalition is indeed this: a red-green coalition in which both the PS and Groen-Ecolo parties are opposed to forced return on principle. As a result, the government compromise does not include a legal framework for entry into residential premises, which is absolutely necessary, but it does include a practical ban on the forced repatriation of an illegal immigrant with a minor child. “Not serious to downright dangerous,” respond Tomas Roggeman and Theo Francken. They are submitting amendments to adjust this bill.

Tomas Roggeman: “Today, every slum landlord’s property in this country is a legal ‘safe space’ for illegal residence. Just like elsewhere in Europe, Belgium therefore also needs a legal framework that allows our police forces to enter such buildings and make arrests there. Of course, always with judicial authorisation. A bill to this effect was drawn up in the previous parliamentary term by the CD&V party’s Minister of Justice Koen Geens and received a positive legal opinion from the Council of State. Nothing came of this because the MR party at the time withdrew its support for it under pressure from the French-speaking left wing. It is time to correct that historic mistake. Because without such a legal framework, you cannot do any serious work on forced return.”

A huge pull effect

Theo Francken: “Secretary of State de Moor claims that forced return is a necessary final step in migration policy. But at the same time, her bill makes that impossible for a very large group of people living here illegally. Today, the Immigration Office can temporarily accommodate families living here illegally who refuse any cooperation with their return in closed housing units for families in Steenokkerzeel. Secretary of State de Moor wants to prohibit this with this bill. There is no such ban anywhere in Europe. And there are good reasons for this: it amounts to making forced return impossible for every illegal immigrant with a minor child. In repatriation cases, the government must take the principle of family unity into account. Approving this could generate a huge pull effect from European Member states.”

The N-VA wants the bill to be amended

For these reasons, the N-VA submitted two amendments to de Moor’s bill. The first seeks to include the legal framework for entry into residential premises, according to the exact wording prepared for this purpose by then Minister of Justice Koen Geens in the previous government. The second amendment aims at removal from de Moor’s bill of the ban on the temporary detention of families pending forced repatriation.