New York Times | 10.01.2018
By MILAN SCHREUER
BRUSSELS — A Belgian official’s decision to expel several Sudanese migrants late last year — several of whom say they were tortured when they went back home — has roiled Belgium’s politics, reflecting not only the fraught migration debate in Western Europe but also the divisions that have made the country notoriously difficult to govern.
The official, Theo Francken, is a 39-year-old Flemish nationalist who in 2014 was appointed secretary of state for asylum and migration. He is known for making incendiary comments about migrants; in September, he apologized for using the term “cleaning up” about a police operation in which several undocumented immigrants were arrested. The term was condemned as xenophobic.
Supporters and critics alike have called Mr. Francken “the Flemish Trump.”