Belgium: Over One in Four Criminal Convictions are for Foreigners

Over one-quarter of those given criminal convictions in Belgium were foreign nationals, data published by the government has revealed.

More than one in four people given criminal convictions in Belgium in 2020 were citizens of another country, data released by the country’s government has shown.

The figures were obtained after a request made by Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang, which is now urging the country’s federal government to implement arrangements allowing foreign criminals to serve their sentences abroad.

According to the revealed statistics, just over 45,000 foreign nationals were convicted of criminal offences in the EU nation-state in 2020, representing just over 28 per cent of all convictions in the country.

By contrast, according to the OECD, just under 13 per cent of the country is described as being foreign-born.

This means that foreign nationals are considerably overrepresented: They make up ‘only’ 13 per cent of the population, and yet their share in the crime statistics is more than twice as high.

The impact that migrant arrivals have had on the country has been substantial, with the country’s capital, Brussels, remaining a hotbed of Islamic terrorist activity to this day.

Earlier this month, police in the country arrested seven “supporters of the IS” who authorities suspect were planning a terror attack.

This follows on from the arrest of another 8 suspected jihadists in Brussels, as well as Antwerp and Eupen, in relation to another alleged terror plot.

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