Nearly half of prisoners in Belgium are foreigners

Slightly less than half of the prisoners in Belgian prisons are non-Belgians, writes De Standaard. As of July, 4,954 prisoners without the Belgian nationality were detained in prisons across Belgium, which has a total prison population of about 10,500.

Earlier this year, there were 5,304 foreign prisoners in Belgium. The decrease, according to state secretary for asylum and migration Theo Francken, is due to an “effective and efficient return policy”, referring to his focus on returning criminals to their country of origin.

In 2015, 1,437 non-Belgian prisoners were returned to their country of origin, and Francken expects that number to rise significantly this year, he says in a press release.

"There are still far too many but hey, Rome was not built in a day,” the state secretary added.