A contract on the earnings of the Belgian people

At the tail of an article Paul Belien has a quote that struck me on a Belgian "rights fraud" scheme.

Last week the Belgian authorities detained a Belgian of Turkish origin who runs a sandwich bar in Hasselt. In 2005 the man had employed more than 70 Turks, each for only one day. As a result of this the Turks, who came over from Turkey to work in the Hasselt sandwich bar, were entitled to stay in Belgium and became eligible for Belgian unemployment and sickness benefits. The Turkish Belgian had a number of accomplices within the Belgian social services. The mastermind of the whole network was an employee of MultiColores, the pro-immigration non-profit organisation of the Belgian Socialist trade union ABVV.

The Belgian law says that foreigners who come to Belgium to join family already living there, are entitled to Belgian welfare benefits if they have worked in Belgium for at least one day. In order to be allowed to work for one day in the sandwich bar, the Turks had to pay 1,000 euro to the network, which also included a Turkish imam. The sandwich bar owner was detained for a few hours, but was later released.

So foreigners can start leeching the system after one day of work. One day.

And the contant worth of this contract on the earnings Belgian people is 1,000 Euros.

Actually that sum is dissapointingly small. But then again. A non-EU person can become a naturalised Belgian citizen in just 3 years.

What this comes down to is that Belgian nationality hardly means anything.

But that goes for citizensship of most Western nations these days.