Belgium's parliament early on Friday approved a controversial law allowing police to enter the homes of suspected undocumented migrants who have ignored orders to leave the country, Reuters reported from Brussels.

Source: Reuters via 98.5 The River

The law was approved by a majority of lawmakers at around 5 a.m. local time (0400 GMT) on Friday, November 6, after a lengthy debate that lasted throughout the night, Reuters said. The measure is part of a broader push by Prime Minister Bart De Wever's right-leaning coalition to limit migration and increase expulsions of people who have been denied the right to stay in Belgium.

Who the searches can target — and the safeguards in the text

Searches will be limited to the homes of people who have been denied asylum in Belgium, have ignored orders to leave and are seen to be a threat to public security, Reuters reported. A home search must be agreed to by an investigative judge, and immigration officials must be present. Reuters reported the searches can only occur between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. The bill was drawn up by Asylum and Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt (N-VA) and Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V), and parliament has been debating the text since before the summer, the Belgian agency Belga reported. Van Bossuyt called the law "historic", according to reports of her reaction after the vote.

At the request of the coalition party Les Engagés, the majority added further amendments, including measures to better protect minors, Belga reported; a parliamentary committee had already approved amendments in October adding procedures for judges and safeguards concerning children. Under the amended framework, investigating judges have seven days to decide on authorisation requests, and an evaluation of the law is planned 18 months after it enters into force, including an assessment of its impact on minors, Brussels Morning reported.

Opposition: rights groups, lawyers, judges — and an ICE comparison

The legislation has drawn strong opposition from human rights groups and lawyers, who argue that allowing police to enter private homes for immigration enforcement risks undermining constitutional rights and privacy laws, Reuters said. Ahead of the vote, Amnesty International urged lawmakers to reject the legislation, which it said could also affect people who help undocumented migrants; Amnesty's Deputy Regional Director Dinushika Dissanayake warned the proposals would create fear and division. Around 3,000 people formed a human chain around Brussels' Palace of Justice on Wednesday evening to protest the bill, and more than 50 other demonstrations and gatherings were organised across the country, Belgian media reported.

Lawyers, investigating judges and the federal police also raised serious objections during hearings in the Chamber, Belga reported: they said the text is unclear about what "threat to public order or security" means, and argued that investigating judges can already authorise searches of the homes of people in such categories under the existing legal framework. In the debate, Groen MP Matti Vandemaele compared the direction to US immigration enforcement: "We have seen on the other side of the Atlantic how quickly a democracy can slide towards ICE-style practices," he said, in remarks carried by Belga. Several mayors, including Leuven's Mohamed Ridouani (Vooruit), said they would oppose home raids in their municipalities, though Vooruit MP Achraf El Yakhloufi stressed during Thursday evening's debate that all mayors would apply the law.

Politically, the liberal opposition party Anders supported the bill, while Vlaams Belang abstained, arguing the bill had been watered down so much it would have little practical effect, Belga reported. On Thursday afternoon the left parties PS, PVDA, PTB and Ecolo-Groen made a last-ditch request to postpone the vote because of the government crisis, but the request was rejected.

The vote landed in the middle of a wider government crisis in Brussels over Prime Minister Bart De Wever's own position. Read: De Wever resignation — the King holds his decision

The government has defended the measure as a tool to enforce deportation orders against people considered a danger to public order or national security. What happens next is implementation: the first authorisation requests to investigating judges, how mayors who promised resistance respond in practice, and whether the rights groups that fought the bill in parliament now challenge it in court — no specific legal challenge had been confirmed in Friday's reporting. For Indian and Punjabi families living in Belgium, the point stressed by both the government and the wire reports is the law's stated narrow scope: it is written for the rejected-asylum, defied-departure, security-threat category, not for undocumented residents generally.