38 per cent of prison inmates in Flanders are of foreign origin

Approximately 40% of prison inmates in Belgium are not of Belgian nationality. And a quarter of those are not even recorded in the population register. In the prisons of Brussels, 58% of prisoners are of foreign extraction, of whom 40% are illegally present or have non-permanent residence permits. This has emerged from figures that the N-VA requested from the Belgian Minister of Justice. Flanders is at more or less the Belgian average with 38% of inmates being non-Belgians, and 12% non-registered. Wallonia scores significantly lower in this respect, with 35% of inmates being of foreign extraction; only 6% are unregistered. “The presence of foreigners in Belgian prisons is no more than normal, but the high size of the percentages is not,” said N-VA MP Theo Francken. The N-VA wishes to help ease the overpopulation of our prisons by having criminals who do not have Belgian nationality serve their penalty in their country of origin. There is also an urgent need for an increased application of an incoming travel ban and a thorough comparison of various legal issues with Belgium’s neighbouring countries.