"In My Name" campaigners call for more transparent regularisation policy

The “In My Name” campaign presented the federal parliament with a petition containing 35,000 signatures on Tuesday, Bruzz reports. The petition calls for the government to implement a citizens' bill on a more transparent regularisation policy for foreign nationals coming to Belgium.

Since 2019, Belgian citizens can submit bills to parliament for discussion, provided that at least 25,000 Flemish, Walloon and Brussels residents officially co-sign their proposal.

The 120 organisations that support the “In My Name” campaign have now achieved this goal. They collected 13,500 signatures digitally and 21,500 on paper. With this action, “In My Name” delivers the first successful citizen bill of unaffiliated citizens, it declares.

Specifically, “In My Name” wants a revision of the existing law of 15 December 1980, "on entry into the territory, residence, establishment and expulsion of foreign nationals". In its new legislative proposal, the campaign calls for a clearer and more humane regularisation policy in Belgium. For example, it provides for the possibility to submit an application on Belgian territory and asks an independent commission to assess rejected applications on appeal.

"Now it is up to the House to process the signatures and to proceed as quickly as possible to a thorough debate, in which the people involved, our unrecognised fellow citizens, are heard in the Chamber,” said a spokesperson for the campaign. “Migration and regularisation are perhaps the most important social issues of our time."