This article was automatically translated from HIBAPRESS, the Arabic version:
This article was automatically translated from HIBAPRESS, the Arabic version:
Brussels – Ezzedine Lamrini
Illegal Moroccan immigrants in Belgium are living in great anxiety after Brussels authorities doubled expulsions against them, while the number of expulsions has quadrupled since the start of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
In this context, the Belgian authorities expelled more than 203 Moroccans residing illegally, while the number expelled during the same period last year did not exceed 43 illegal immigrants.
According to what the Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Immigration, Nicole de Moor, announced, 113 people among the deportees were people who had been detained and released.
De Moor attributed this increase in the number of Moroccan immigrants expelled from Belgian territory to “renewed cooperation with Morocco”, since last April they signed a joint agreement aimed at strengthening cooperation in the field of immigration and to push back immigrants who are illegally on Belgian soil.
The Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration has expressed her conviction that the number of forced returns is expected to increase further in the future.
The Belgian official underlined Morocco’s role as a partner in the field of immigration, noting in the same context that around 80,000 Moroccans legally reside in Belgium.
“There is now a real opportunity to deport people who are not allowed to stay here, whereas in the past the police often had to release people they had arrested,” she concluded.
Last April, Brussels obtained promises from Morocco to push back Moroccan immigrants in an irregular situation in Belgium, particularly those detained in Belgian prisons, following the visit of Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo to Rabat.
Note that more than 800,000 Moroccans live in this Belgian kingdom, or between 7 and 8 percent of the total population. In Brussels alone, there is a strong community representing more than 20 percent, according to official statistics revealed by the Moroccan ambassador to Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Mohamed Amer, in his speech during one of the official events of the Moroccan embassy in Brussels, indicating that Moroccans under the age of 18 are represented in Brussels.
Last May, Belgium adopted a law that expands the powers of the European Border Guard Agency, Frontex, and gives the green light to agency employees to intervene in Belgian border control and carry out returns forced and expulsions of migrants on Belgian territory, including in railway stations. train stations or airports.
Immediately after the law’s adoption, several human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, signed a statement denouncing the new legislation and expressing concern, highlighting “the ambiguity around the tasks assigned to employees and the risks that this poses.” arise from human rights violations.
