Tomas Roggeman on the asylum crisis: “This is the moral bankruptcy of the left”

In the Parliamentary Committee on the Interior, State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Nicole De Moor was grilled about her decision to stop offering accommodation to single men. The State Secretary even coolly ignored the annulment by the Council of State. “The asylum mess is so big that it can no longer even be managed legally,” says MP Tomas Roggeman.

Measures to reduce the influx proved politically unfeasible, mainly thanks to the presence of the PS party and the greens in the Council of Ministers. “Due to the naive welcome policy of this federal government, asylum applications have continued to increase since she took office, until they went all the way through the roof. Last month alone, 3,366 people submitted asylum applications, while the administrative backlog is now so large that it takes years to grant asylum seekers a decision. A total crash of the asylum system was inevitable,” Roggeman explains.

Hypocritical

The attitude of the left-wing majority parties in the parliamentary debate was striking, but not surprising. They sought conflict with the State Secretary, but also did not attach any real political consequences to her policies. “Hypocritical,” says Roggeman. “Just one legislature ago, the same left-wing parties were still screaming blue murder about the policies of Theo Franken and the N-VA, and today, it is no more than a rebuke. However, during the time Theo Francken was the State Secretary, every asylum seeker was given a bed, in the midst of a European migration crisis.”

Government participation is more important

“This is now five years later. Never before have we had a government that violates human rights so often,” Roggeman continues, “And all with the consent of the Groen, Ecolo, PS and Vooruit parties. But government participation seems to be more important than implementing the humane asylum policy that is always preached. What we observed here is the moral bankruptcy of the left.”