As provided for in the government agreement and in order to combat illegal residence, the federal government has agreed to authorise home visits to places where people are staying who refuse to cooperate with their return and who pose a danger to public order or national security. With the authorisation of an investigating judge, the police will be able to enter these homes and place the persons in administrative detention.
1. Background
In order to strengthen the fight against illegal residence, an agreement was reached in the Council of Ministers at the end of July 2025 concerning home visits. The government agreement provides the following on this matter:
“The Immigration Office has the possibility, in cooperation with the police and with the authorisation of an investigating judge, to access the residence where the person who has exhausted all avenues of appeal and who refuses any access is staying. This must be the ultimate solution, a measure necessary for the execution of the removal measure (in the broad sense of the term), requested from the investigating judge when no action has been taken on an enforceable removal, expulsion or transfer measure, when the person does not cooperate with its execution and when there are reasonable grounds to believe that he/she is still at the address in question. […] This measure applies to foreign nationals who have received an order to leave the territory and who pose a danger to public order or national security due to acts of extremism, radicalism or terrorism, or who have been convicted of serious offences.”
2. What does the draft bill provide for?
In July, the federal government approved, at first reading, Minister Van Bossuyt's draft bill amending the law of 15 December 1980 on access to the territory, residence, establishment and removal of foreign nationals, as regards home visits. This draft bill was sent to the Council of State for advice.
The plan is to authorise these visits to places where people are staying who refuse to cooperate with their return and who pose a danger to society. With the authorisation of an investigating judge, the police will be able to enter these homes and place the persons in administrative detention.
3. Some arguments
- The person concerned must first have had the opportunity to voluntarily comply with a removal measure. Indeed, the home visit is a measure of last resort when all other return measures (such as voluntary return) have failed and the deadline set out in the order to leave the territory has expired;
- The measure clearly targets people who pose a danger to national security and who have voluntarily and deliberately placed themselves in an illegal situation for a long time by failing to comply with successive decisions taken against them by the Belgian State;
- We must ensure that orders to leave the territory are actually enforced in the event of a negative decision;
- The inviolability of the home is guaranteed by Article 15 of the Constitution, but this right is not absolute. Searches may be authorised within the framework set out by law. Just as home visits can already be organised as part of inspections by the social inspectorate, the labour inspectorate or the tax administration in relation to combating tax fraud.