Human chain around Brussels courthouse as the Chamber votes on home entry bill today
Thousands of people linked arms around the Brussels Palace of Justice on Wednesday, and protests took place in more than fifty towns against plans to let authorities enter homes to look for people without residence rights.
Several thousand people formed a human chain around the Palace of Justice in Brussels on Wednesday evening, five to six rows deep in places, VRT NWS and L'Avenir reported, citing Belga. They were protesting against the bill on home entries, which the Chamber votes on in plenary today. According to BX1 and the French-language site of VRT NWS, more than fifty gatherings were planned at town halls across the country, including in Ghent, Leuven, Bruges, Liège, Namur, Charleroi and Mons. In Bruges, about 120 people from some forty organisations turned up with pots and pans.
The bill was drafted by Asylum and Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt (N-VA) and Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V). It is meant to make it easier to deport people without legal residence who keep refusing to cooperate with their return. According to VRT NWS, it applies only to people who pose a threat to public order or national security. Police would enter together with the Immigration Office and then place the person in administrative detention; each entry requires prior approval from a justice of the peace.
Opponents, including associations, lawyers, magistrates and collectives of undocumented people, argue that the text undermines the inviolability of the home and the right to private and family life. They speak of raids rather than visits and, according to BX1, fear operations from five in the morning, including when children are present. L'Avenir notes that the Council of State and many organisations also believe the bill pays too little attention to children's welfare. Banners and chants were aimed at the federal government.