New immigration officers to speed up expulsions

9 August 2005

BRUSSELS — The Belgian immigration service (DVZ) will be strengthened with 15 ‘expulsion public servants’ from 1 September to uncover the identity and nationality of detained foreigners.

The new DVZ recruits will be entrusted with accelerating deportation procedures and boosting the number of people voluntarily returning to their land of origin.

“Someone can only be ejected from our country if he or she has been identified,” the private secretary of Interior Minister Pattrick Dewael said.

However, there are also asylum seekers who wish to hide their identity and nationality in order to stay in Belgium. While their land of origin remains unknown, Belgium cannot deport them.

On 1 September, a detainee identification service will be established with a staff of 15 focused on identifying detained foreigners.

The DVZ — known in French as l’Office des étrangers — wants to deport the detainees as quickly as possible after their release from prison and transfer to the immigration service for repatriation.

A DVZ spokeswoman said the ex-detainees are not popular with the regular residents of asylum seeker shelters either. She said they sometimes stay up to two months in a centre prior to repatriation.

The task of the new expulsion officials will be to reduce that time period, newspaper ‘De Morgen’ reported on Tuesday.

Subject: Belgian news