we need binfmt_misc support compiled in the kernel and the kernel I have does not have this enabled. Not sure about the latest debian release but the first kernel did not include this feature.
This is a kernel feature that pipes binaries for other cpu architectures through qemu in the background.
See How to recompile kernel to enable BINFMT_MISC support? for rough notes but I have not tested this myself.
Once you have a new kernel you also need to install binfmt-support from apt or run a docker container that contains these binaries like this Docker container.