Place of detention

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Asylum applicants are detained in special administrative detention facilities and are not detained with ordinary prisoners.[1] The Criminal Procedures Act and the Aliens Act provide for a strict separation of persons illegally entering or residing on the territory and criminal offenders or suspects.[2] Asylum applicants can be detained with other third-country nationals and the same assistance is given to them as to irregular migrants in detention centres. However, in practice, some people who find themselves in prison as a result of criminal charges have also applied for international protection. After completing their sentence/or upon early release they can thus be transferred to a closed detention centre, if legal conditions are met.

Detention centres

The following table gives an overview of the detention centres and their respective capacity in March 2023.[3] No data was provided for 2024.

The government decided on 14 May 2017 to maximise the number of places in existing detention facilities. In 2019 the open reception centre (Holsbeek) was thus turned into a detention centre for 50 women. The new government taking office on 1 October 2020 confirmed the construction of additional places. With the construction of two additional detention centres in Zandvliet (144 places) and Jumet (200 places), the construction of a new centre in Jabbeke (112 places) as replacement for the centre in Bruges and the creation of a new quick-departure centre in Steenokkerzeel, the total detention capacity in Belgium in 2030 should amount to 1,145 places (see General).

This table gives an overview of the number of detentions/detainees per centre in the year 2023 and 2024.[4]

Return houses

Families with minor children can only be held in return houses, also called ‘family units’ or ‘FITT’. When families are being transferred from the border, these persons are legally speaking not considered to have entered the territory.

In the strict sense, the return homes are considered an alternative to detention since they are considered to be open facilities. In practice however, families residing in return houses are subject to freedom restrictions (e.g. one adult must be present in the home at all times) and are under the control of a so-called ‘return coach’.[5] Children are able to go to school and adults can go out if they obtain permission to do so.[6] However a study conducted by NGOs concluded that some fundamental rights of children were not respected.[7] The fact that children are removed from their usual living areas, do not always have access to school[8] or leisure activities is considered to be contrary to the best interest of the child. Due to these and other reasons, civil society organisations do not consider the return houses to meet the conditions of a proper ‘alternative to detention’.[9]

In 2023, there were 5 sites with 27 housing units with a capacity of 169 persons spread over the communes of Zulte, Tielt, Tubize, Sint-Gillis-Waas and Beauvechain. A total of 164 families, which amounts to 520 persons (295 children, 163 woman and 62 man) resided in the housing units throughout that year. The majority of these families had applied for international protection at the border (in 2023, 128 out of the 164 families). The average duration of stay is 33 days. At least 52 families were released in 2023.[10]

Until now, no independent evaluation of the conditions of such facilities has been carried out, although NGOs have urged for it[11].[12]

As for unaccompanied children, the Observation and Orientation Centres (OOC) are not detention centres but they are ‘secured’ and fall under the authority of Fedasil instead of that of the Immigration Office.

[1] Article 4 Royal Decree on Closed Centres, referring to Articles 74/5 and 74/6 Aliens Act.

[2] Article 609 Criminal Procedures Act and Article 74/8 Aliens Act. The latter provision only allows for a criminal offender who has served his sentence to be kept in prison for an additional 7 days as long as he or she is separated from the common prisoners.

[3] Information provided by the Immigration Office in March 2023.

[4] Information provided by the Immigration Office in April 2024 and in May 2025.

[5] Return coaches are staff members of the Immigration Office that assist the families concerned during their stay in the family unit.

[6] Royal Decree on Closed Centres, amended in October 2014.

[7] Platform of children on the move, ‘Return houses in Belgium: a full-fledged, efficient and child-friendly alternative to detention ?’, January 2021, available in French here and in Dutch here.

[8] Access to school depends on several factors such as the duration of the stay in the FITT, agreement of the parents, possibility to register in a school in the middle of the school year, etc. In practice, civil society organisations observe that children above 12 years old are almost systematically deprived of access to school.

[9] Move coalition, Monitoring report 2023, December 2024, p. 41, available in French here. However, in the context of their right of reply to the 2024 AIDA report update, the Immigration Office notes that, as is also true when children move, not all such moves are against the best interest of the child (e.g., if previously living on the streets).

[10] Move coalition, Monitoring report 2023, December 2024, p. 41, available in French here.

[11] Plateforme mineurs en exil, Report: Return houses in Belgium, a fully-fledged alternative to detention, effective and respectful of children’s rights?, available in French here.

[12] The Immigration Office, in the context of its right to reply to the 2024 AIDA report, notes that an evaluation was carried out by the EU Commission in the context of the ‘Schengen evaluations’ in 2015 and 2020; no source was provided, however.