Minister of Justice Van Tigchelt after statements about migration stop: “We should never tar everyone with the same brush” | Domestic

The Antwerp resident spoke with Charly Badibanga in the podcast ‘Talks with Charly’. Migration was discussed there. Host Badibanga asked the minister whether a migration stop is possible. “Of course not,” Van Tigchelt responded. “That is neither necessary nor desirable.”

The Open VLD member gave some examples to explain why he does not want a migration stop. “Who takes care of our care? Who will lay my water pipe? Who cleans my windows at home? Take away migration and our economy comes to a standstill.”

The examples were not appreciated by Badibanga, after which Van Tigchelt apologized: “Sorry for expressing myself incorrectly.” He also praised directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, as well as former footballers Marouane Fellaini and Vincent Kompany, as “the wealth of migration”. “I look at them with big eyes,” said the minister.

In a short interview with our editors, Van Tigchelt puts the finishing touches on the subject. “There are currently almost 4,000 undocumented people in our prisons. Last year we sent back 1,600. We are now focusing even more on this. We are systematically sending back undocumented people to Morocco for the first time since 2017.”

He then returned to the controversial statement from the podcast. “We should not tar everyone with the same brush,” the minister told HLN. “Our IT people, people in healthcare and construction and indeed the person who washes the windows at my home. Sorry if I don’t do that myself. I do not have time for that. These are all people with a migration background and we need them too.”

Van Tigchelt repeatedly emphasized on reducing unemployment. “Work, work, work, that is the best way to integrate newcomers. Everyone has to get to work. That is the answer to the problems.” The fact that he is against a migration stop does not appear to be entirely an economic story. “Diversity is also an enrichment in the cultural sector.”

Van Tigchelt also told HLN how he ended up in the podcast ‘Talks with Charly’. “I was at an iftar in Antwerp a few weeks ago. There was Charly Badibanga. He came to speak to me and I find him particularly intriguing,” says the justice minister.

“That man was in prison in the United States from the age of 16 to 21,” Van Tigchelt explains. “He then came back to our country and is now a role model for the youth. He works at City Pirates. I think that’s fantastic and people like that deserve my respect.”

In another recording of the podcast a few weeks ago, Badibanga also spoke with the chairman of Vlaams Belang. “I believe that migration is timeless, but that we must be able to stop mass migration,” Tom Van Grieken said at the time. “We cannot stop migration today within the European framework. We want a Danish model with exceptions to European rules.”

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