Belgium: 1,239 forced removals in eight months and investigations into assets held in Morocco

Belgium carried out 1,239 forced removals in the first eight months of 2026, surpassing its previous annual record of 1,112 set in 2017, according to an analysis published on October 3, 2026, by the Moroccan daily Libération, written by Hassan Bentaleb. Moroccan nationals top the list of these removals with 233 people, ahead of Albanians (195) and Algerians (138).

The demographic context sheds light on these figures. The Moroccan community is the largest among communities originating from third countries in Belgium, with 359,491 people, of whom approximately 75% have acquired Belgian nationality, according to Libération. The removal policy is driven by State Secretary Anneleen Van Bossuyt, who has made it a priority, while Minister of Justice Annelies Verlinden traveled to Rabat in June 2026 to strengthen judicial cooperation between the two countries.

Surveillance crosses the border

The most novel aspect of the issue does not concern expulsions but assets. In Flanders, authorities conducted 928 investigations between June 2021 and the end of 2023 into potential real estate held abroad by social housing beneficiaries, at a total cost of 1.39 million euros, according to Libération. Of this total, 368 files concerned properties potentially located in Morocco, and 476 investigations yielded a positive result, or 51.3%.

This is the shift described by the Moroccan newspaper: the border no longer stops at the territory; it has become patrimonial and judicial, extending to the country of origin. A social housing tenant of Moroccan origin may thus see their right to housing conditioned on a verification carried out thousands of kilometers away, in a country of which they are often a national through their parents' birth. Social housing fraud is indefensible, and the Flemish figures show that it exists. However, targeting by national origin places a permanent suspicion on an entire community, including those who have become Belgian.

Questionable effectiveness on the ground

The rhetoric of firmness also runs up against its own limits. The mayor of Schaerbeek noted that only 8% of undocumented people apprehended in his municipality were actually removed, according to the same media outlet. The hardening of policy therefore primarily produces precariousness and invisibility for those who remain, without reaching the announced volumes.

Finally, Libération reports that approximately one-tenth of people detained in Belgium are of Moroccan nationality, an element put forward to justify the judicial rapprochement with Rabat. What remains is the question that these measures do not address: that of legal pathways for residence and work, the scarcity of which precisely fuels the irregular situations that Belgium intends to reduce.