In 2021, an estimated 120,000 undocumented people were living in Belgium. This is a rough figure, as their invisibility makes the exact number difficult to measure.

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As a solution to their housing problem, they take matters into their own hands. They organize themselves into collectives and occupy vacant buildings. From empty hotels to old office buildings, from hospitals to schools or churches: anything large enough to offer people a safe home.
 

Despite their organization and their willingness to enter into dialogue with property owners, squatting remains illegal and unsafe. With a few exceptions, owners rarely allow it. There are occupied buildings where people have been living for as long as six years, but often this is limited to just a few months. As a result, undocumented people live in the constant move from place to place.
 

One might think that this situation affects undocumented people who have only recently arrived in Belgium, people who have not yet found their footing or are awaiting regularization. That is perhaps the most surprising aspect of this entire story: among the people interviewed for this project, the shortest period someone had lived this way was three years. Often, we are talking about decades.

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Undocumented people work and live unregistered. Their situation affects many in our capital, yet they remains invisible. The individuals portrayed here represent a large group of residents in Brussels, lives that live alongside our own. This is how they live, and how they try to create a sense of home, despite the constant temporariness.