A thousand extra police to combat radicalisation and terrorism

The police force will acquire an additional thousand policemen and women by 2019. That is what Minister of Security and the Interior Jan Jambon announced when presenting the federal action plan against radicalisation, violent extremism and terrorism. That also includes the plan for the Brussels Canal Zone. It encompasses three aspects: administrative, police services and judicial. “The cooperation and coordination between these different levels is our key to success,” Jan Jambon emphasises.

The overall plan includes, among others, 103 extra members of staff for State Security. Border control at the airports of Zaventem and Charleroi will be strengthened and a plan will be drawn up for the coast in order to prevent the appearance of refugee tent encampments. The police will also receive reinforcement for this. The measures approved by the government amount to 300 million euros out of an available budget of 400 million euros. An additional one hundred million euros will be reserved for government use in 2016.

Canal Zone

Of the one thousand extra federal police staff that will be gradually added by 2019, three hundred will already be deployed this year in Molenbeek, Vilvoorde and six other Brussels municipalities. One of the plan's cornerstones is, after all, to find out who resides in those municipalities and where. “Police staff must do a better job monitoring fighters who have returned from Syria,” according to Jan Jambon. “Document fraud and trade in weapons and drugs that allow terrorists to finance their activities are also dealt with more severely. In addition we take measures against hate preachers and radicalisation in back rooms.” Finally, extra efforts are also made to reinforce the Public Prosecutor and the Public Prosecutor's Offices of Brussels and Halle-Vilvoorde, and to increase the fight against terror on a digital level as well.