Samenvatting

Immigration officers are active in both Dutch and Belgian immigration detention centers. Their task is to contribute to the forced return of detained migrants without residence permits. There are, however, clear differences between the Netherlands and Belgium in terms of policy, organizational structure and prescribed tasks of these ‘return agents’. This article describes these differences and shows how this leads to different working practices. The immigration officers in the Netherlands put more pressure on detainees in order to convince them to cooperate with their forced return. This mainly leads to more frustration among detainees. The social assistants in Belgium, however, state that working on return is difficult. They therefore make little or no attempt to persuade detainees to leave. Although this leads to a better living environment in the detention center, it does not alter the feelings of injustice experienced by detainees.