Friday

2nd Jun 2023

How Belgian government got caught up in human smuggling

  • Former Belgian state secretary Theo Francken followed a sectarian agenda on Syria - which ended up with a party colleague being found guilty of human smuggling. (Photo: The Council of the European Union)

Melikan Kucam, a member of the Mechelen city council in Belgium for the Flemish nationalist party New Flemish Alliance (NVA), was sentenced by a court on Tuesday (12 January) to eight years in prison for human smuggling.

Kucam in 2015 was given free reign by then Belgian state secretary for asylum and migration, Theo Francken (also of the NVA) to compile lists of Syrian Christians.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Former Belgian state secretary for asylum and migration Theo Francken and Melikam Kucam (right) - who was this week sentenced to eight years for human smuggling (Photo: NVA)

The Kucam list contained the names of 326 people who would get a Belgian humanitarian visa - a fast-track special procedure that gives people the opportunity to fly to Belgium immediately.

However, Kucam asked for payments from those Syrians in order to get on his list, ranging from €2,500 up to €7,500, according to the court. In total, Kucam would have received more than €500,000 through this system of human smuggling.

When Kucam sent his lists to the office of Francken, the office ordered the Belgian administration to issue humanitarian visa to each one of the names, without questioning it. Yet for some of the people on the list, even basic information like a birth date was lacking.

Strangely, 78 of the people who were granted a humanitarian visa then never picked it up at the Belgian embassy in Beirut.

Conversely, the Belgian government doesn't know the whereabouts of 140 of those who came to Belgium via this exceptional humanitarian procedure.

Most probably they used the Belgian humanitarian visa to travel on to other European countries - which is not permitted.

In addition to Kucam's eight-year jail sentence, he was also fined €696,000. Kucam's son received a four-year sentence and a €216,000 fine, while his wife received a prison sentence of 40 months and a fine of €32,000.

In his initial reaction, Francken called the sentences "appropriate", but refused any responsibility. But on Wednesday (13 January) he admitted that, as a member of the government, he in fact had political responsibility.

The Francken system

Francken was state secretary, or deputy minister, for asylum and migration in the Belgian government of prime minister Charles Michel from 2014 to 2018.

He was known for taking a hardline on migration, and was one of the first supporters of push backs of refugee boats in the Mediterranean Sea.

The New York Times called Francken the "Flemish Trump" in a piece exploring how Francken used Twitter to spread inflammatory statements.

In several tweets he accused the NGO Doctors without Borders of human trafficking - based on the fact that they provided aid to refugees who reach Europe illegally by boat.

He was also criticised of sending Sudanese refugees back to their home country through cooperation with the Sudanese regime, known for its widespread torture.

However, Francken said he wanted to do something for the Christians in Syria in order to "keep them out of the hands of Isis".

Francken discussed his plan with the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, but they refused to select people based only on religious beliefs.

As a critic of Islam as an alleged danger to Europe, he wanted to push through his sectarian agenda.

Thus Francken set up his own system of humanitarian visas, in order to get Syrian Christians to Belgium.

He worked with three different organisations to select and list people who would be granted a humanitarian visa.

Two of these organisations were well established and no problems have been signalled with their own lists, or with the people who came through this procedure to Belgium. Most of them asked for and received asylum in Belgium.

This was not the case with the Kucam's lists.

Francken admitted that he or his office had been tipped off twice about possible fraud in the way Kucam had been working. But he did not alert the justice system.

It does not seem as if there will be any political consequences for Francken, as he is no longer a member of the Belgian government.

However, he is a candidate to become the new vice-president of his NVA party.

Belgian mayor invites Orban to migrant-diverse town

Winner of 'World's Best Mayor', Mechelen's Bart Somers has invited Hungary's PM to visit. "You know, in the whole of Hungary with 10million inhabitants, they have less Muslims than we have in a small city of 90,000," he told EUobserver.

EU relying on 'ineffective' Greek body to probe pushback video

The European Commission says it cannot act on latest revelations by the New York Times of illegal pushbacks of asylum-seekers until authorities in Greece first conduct a national investigation. Critics say those same authorities are politically compromised and ineffective.

Latest News

  1. EU data protection chief launches Frontex investigation
  2. Madrid steps up bid to host EU anti-money laundering hub
  3. How EU leaders should deal with Chinese government repression
  4. MEPs pile on pressure for EU to delay Hungary's presidency
  5. IEA: World 'comfortably' on track for renewables target
  6. Europe's TV union wooing Lavrov for splashy interview
  7. ECB: eurozone home prices could see 'disorderly' fall
  8. Adapting to Southern Europe's 'new normal' — from droughts to floods

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. International Sustainable Finance CentreJoin CEE Sustainable Finance Summit, 15 – 19 May 2023, high-level event for finance & business
  2. ICLEISeven actionable measures to make food procurement in Europe more sustainable
  3. World BankWorld Bank Report Highlights Role of Human Development for a Successful Green Transition in Europe
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic summit to step up the fight against food loss and waste
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersThink-tank: Strengthen co-operation around tech giants’ influence in the Nordics
  6. EFBWWEFBWW calls for the EC to stop exploitation in subcontracting chains

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. InformaConnecting Expert Industry-Leaders, Top Suppliers, and Inquiring Buyers all in one space - visit Battery Show Europe.
  2. EFBWWEFBWW and FIEC do not agree to any exemptions to mandatory prior notifications in construction
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersNordic and Baltic ways to prevent gender-based violence
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Economic gender equality now! Nordic ways to close the pension gap
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: Pushing back the push-back - Nordic solutions to online gender-based violence
  6. Nordic Council of MinistersCSW67: The Nordics are ready to push for gender equality

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us