Belgium is Europe’s asylum pit

Belgium is in a deep asylum crisis. Unlike the asylum crisis of 2015-2016, this time, it is not a European problem but mainly a Belgian phenomenon. Austria and the Netherlands also have high inflow rates, but children only sleep on the streets in Belgium. “There is no more time to lose,” says MP Theo Francken. “The federal government must put my past dissuasive campaigns online again.”

“The De Croo government has itself provoked this asylum crisis by adopting a much too soft approach. The backlog of asylum cases is just getting worse; there are already 4,500 convictions now. Meanwhile, the asylum budget is exploding, and people need to be accommodated in hotels. That is the ultimate pull factor,” says the former Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, pointing out that the backlog of asylum applications was virtually eliminated under his mandate.

Put every effort into dissuasion

“When I was State Secretary, families and orphaned children never had to sleep on the streets of Brussels, where they fell prey to all kinds of rogue characters. Why? Because I put every effort into dissuasion. I made it clear that Belgium is not the land of milk and honey. My dissuasion campaigns were taken offline the day I was no longer Secretary of State. They thought it was ‘inhuman’. By the way, the Groenlinks party thought just about everything I did was ‘inhuman’, ‘racism’, ‘discrimination’, etc.”

No time to lose

Just what is inhuman? Discouraging asylum seekers from coming to a crowded country or letting children sleep on the streets of Brussels in the rain and wind? I am therefore calling on the government to put my dissuasion campaigns online once again. Right now. There is no time to lose.