The terrorist attack in Brussels: “How could this terrorist stay under the radar?”

Once again, Belgium was shocked by a terrorist attack by a Muslim. And once again, the perpetrator turned out to be a man who entered the country illegally and was still allowed to walk around freely, even though he was known to the security services. “How can a radicalising Tunisian who applies for asylum, has a relationship with a Belgian woman with a child and adores ISIS on social media have stayed under the radar? I have big questions about that,” says MP Theo Francken.

In 2016, the Immigration Office was included under the Radicalisation Plan in order to arrive at a better exchange of information between all the services concerned about radicalised people and Muslim extremists. This allowed a lot of people to be kept on the radar, even if they were staying here illegally. “I thus find it highly questionable that people now report that they did not know this man’s address. The big question is why Abdesalam L. never appeared on the radar as radicalised, even after he applied for asylum. Yet such an application requires an in-depth investigation.”

Cannot be returned

Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration de Moor (CD&V party) has a draft bill ready for a stricter return policy, but Theo Francken is shooting that down in flames. “Do you know what is in that draft? A ban on the imprisonment of families in the course of repatriation. In other words: Abdesalam L. could never have been sent back because he had a child. I have no words for that. How can you claim that you will make the return policy stricter if an illegal immigrant with a child cannot legally be returned?”

The soft approach does not work

De Moor is also putting forward a stronger “compelling return policy”. “That already exists,” states Theo. “The so-called ICAM project. People start ‘reasoning’ with illegal immigrants to convince them to return. Last year, 1,200 illegal immigrants were invited that way. Three hundred showed up; 100 returned. Is that de Moor’s tactic? Don’t make me laugh. When I was the Secretary of State, I mainly strengthened the hard services involved in active investigation and radicalisation. Do you know how many people still work there now? Four. Whereas de Moor recruits hundreds of people for her soft approach that doesn’t work.”

The external border of the EU leaks like a sieve

Abdesalam L. came across the Mediterranean Sea in 2011 through illegal migration. This was also the case with previous attacks by radicalised Muslims in Europe. The list is very long. Theo: “The best way to rule out terrorist attacks is to prevent terrorists from entering the country. That presupposes strict control of Europe’s external borders, and we do not have enough of that today. The external borders leak like a sieve.”

Delay costs lives

“The European Union should have rolled out a strict push-back policy based on the Australian model years ago to reduce illegal entries along that route as much as possible by concluding comprehensive migration agreements with transit countries in North Africa. That is no small matter, I realise that, but it is not impossible. However, it has been delayed to this day, largely due to political unwillingness. That delay has once again cost European lives,” Theo concludes.