Sep
Belgium continues to crack down on migration. Following a Royal Decree in August – which cleared the way for detaining families with children – the Belgian government on Monday unveiled a string of new measures to combat illegal migration. Interior Minister Jan Jambon announced the opening of a “national administrative centre for transmigration”. The centre […]
Aug
Betul Baslik, a Turkish-origin social services and pedagogy graduate, has been denied an internship by a Belgian retirement home due to her headscarf. Born and raised in Belgium, Baslik told Anadolu Agency that she had recently been accepted to pursue her master’s degree at Vrije University Brussels, and she had been encouraged as a successful […]
Jun
New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) parliamentarian Zuhal Demir, who is accused of making PKK propaganda and known for her remarks against Muslims and Turkey, objects to Turkish language lessons given to children of Turkish descent after school. According to a news report published by Het Laatste Nieuws (HLN), around 50 students of Turkish descent in Ghent […]
May
A Belgian policeman fired the bullet that killed a two-year-old Kurdish girl during a high-speed chase of a van transporting migrants in Belgium last week, prosecutors confirmed Tuesday. Prosecutors announced the results of the probe into the death of Mawda Shawri, after officials said on Friday that she had died from a bullet wound in the […]
Apr
Belgium’s State Secretary for Asylum and Migration came under fire for implying that the country favors Christian asylum seekers over non-Christians, reports said. In a message posted to celebrate the Easter holiday on his official Twitter account, minister Theo Francken from the far-right New Flemish Alliance (N-VA Party) said that Belgium has welcomed 903 Syrian […]
Mar
In an interview on Sunday, the N-VA President and Antwerp mayor Bart De Wever told De Zondag that his opinion on immigration had not changed over the years. “Look at my speeches over the last thirty years. You see will a certain continuity. But because of false humanism from the Left, all the other speeches […]
Mar
Belgian citizens shelter 500 migrants each night. Police could soon start raiding their homes. Belgium’s state secretary for asylum policy and migration, Theo Francken, has proposed a law that would allow the police — under a judge’s order — to raid private homes to deport people whose asylum requests have been denied. The proposal has […]
Feb
Recent limitations on family reunification for people of foreign origin concern Turks in Belgium. In a country where rising racism, xenophobia and increasing support for the far-right remains risky for migrants, Belgium moved to restrict family reunification visas in 2011 and 2016 by introducing new regulations. As a result, family reunification visas for Turks dropped […]
Feb
The Belgian Jewish community has filed a lawsuit against legislation banning the production of kosher meat from 2019. They argue that banning the sale of such meat, which requires animals to be killed without being stunned first, violates their right to freedom of religion. The European Jewish Congress previously described the law as ‘the greatest […]
Jan
A UNICEF report published on Friday criticized the Belgian asylum procedure and said it is “a heavy burden” for the refugee children. The UN agency interviewed 170 refugee children for two years in Belgium and the report said children were dragged from one migration center to another throughout the asylum procedure. Children speaking to UNICEF […]
