<\/p>\n
Ahead of the vote in Belgian Federal Parliament on Thursday 5 November on whether to allow police raids on people\u2019s homes for migration control purposes, including homes of people who may be hosting undocumented migrants, Dinushika Dissanayake the Deputy Regional Director of Amnesty International said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThese proposals which allow for home raids are bound to sow fear and division. The bill before Belgium\u2019s parliament gives police vast powers to enter people\u2019s homes for migration control purposes, between the hours of 5am and 9pm and irrespective of whether children are present.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis would not only cause a serious intrusion into people\u2019s private and family life but also the bill fails to provide effective ways to appeal or challenge these decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cBelgium has a strong tradition of showing solidarity towards migrant communities, with many people opening their doors and homes to offer beds, food and support \u2013 as is their prerogative. This will discourage people from doing so in future.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese disproportionate powers are another cruel and coercive tool to create an increasingly hostile environment for migrants in Europe and for those showing solidarity with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Belgian proposals are very much in line with the EU\u2019s return regulation<\/a> and its\u00a0dogged and misguided insistence on ramping up deportations, raids, and detention at any cost, with disproportionate impacts on racialized people.<\/p>\n \u201cThese punitive proposals will tear communities apart and make everyday life more dangerous, complicated and frightening for ordinary people. The Belgian Parliament must reject them, along with any attempt to scapegoat migrants<\/p>\n \u201cAt a time when the cost of living is soaring and economic insecurity is gripping millions across the country, politicians must not deflect attention by targeting one of the most marginalized groups in society.\u201d<\/p>\n Background<\/strong><\/p>\n On 5 November, the Belgian Federal Parliament will vote on an amendment to the law on the access, residence, settlement, and removal of foreign nationals, that introduces the possibility of \u2018home inspections\u2019.<\/p>\n The bill stipulates that police officers can \u201center the residence of a foreign national, even if it is the home or place of residence of a third party,\u201d provided that they obtain authorization for a home inspection from an investigative judge who wouldn\u2019t have full investigative powers<\/a>.<\/p>\n They would decide on the basis of a series of criteria, including that the targeted individual is under a deportation order and that they are considered to pose a risk to public order or national security; a criterion that is not defined in the text. The bill also fails to provide affected people and those who live with them or host them with an effective avenue to appeal the decision ordering the home visit or challenge its proportionality.<\/p>\n Police will be able to force open peoples\u2019 doors from 5am until 9pm and will have powers to search the home for identity documents. They are allowed to enter people\u2019s homes even if children are present, under certain conditions.<\/p>\n Amnesty International Belgium together with 36 Belgian organizations are organizing a demonstration in front of the Palace of Justice in Brussels at 5pm, 4 November. More than 50 decentralized actions are also organized in the country. More details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n kabarsula SLOT <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ahead of the vote in Belgian Federal Parliament on Thursday 5 November on whether to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kabarsula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kabarsula.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}