Almost 100 transit migrants detained
Police held a large-scale operation against people smuggling in West Flanders on Monday night. 200 officers were deployed at the Port of Zeebrugge, at car and truck parks along motorways and at various bus stations in the province. A total of 97 transit migrants were detained.
The Provincial Governor of West Flanders Carl Decaluwé told VRT News that “It was one of the biggest operations to date”.
"It was positive that Local Police Services are not confronted with this issue showed a great deal of solidarity with the police services that have been under pressure for many years because of it”.
A total of 97 transit migrants were detained. Officers were able to force a van to stop in which 24 transit migrants that had come from Dunkirk.
"I have spoken to a number of these people. They came from Tunisia, Eritrea and Syria. I spoke at length to a Syrian to try and convince him to ask for asylum here, but he really wanted to go to Great Britain. It is really time that the British start campaigns to dissuade people”.
The Interior Minister Jan Jambon and the Federal Secretary of State responsible for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken (both Flemish nationalist) are travelling to London today to try and convince the British authorities to send British police offices to Belgium. Their job would be to dissuade transit migrants from trying to get to the UK.