Belgian Secr of State for Asylum and Migration Franken wants to educate refugees: "A woman is treated here with respect"

Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Franken wants to educate refugees: "A woman is treated here with respect". (Hln)[GoogleTranslated].

Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken (N-VA) wants to give to all asylum applicants courses on how to deal with women. According to him there are "almost daily" fights between Iraqis and Afghans in the refugee shelters. A practice where he wants to put a stop to, and for which there should be tougher sanctions. "The heaviest sanction now, 30 days exclusion from the asylum center, does not make much impression on them."

The Deputy Minister also elaborated on the courses he wants to give to all applicants on how to deal with women. Some centers already started this, but the government wants to expand the system in the coming weeks, writes De Standaard this morning.

The courses should above all ensure that asylum seekers are taught respect for women. "It's about the fact that it is normal that men and women are absolutely equal, women go to work, they can vote, so that a woman is one who is treated with respect and is not a slut or whore. These debates we conducted 50, 60 years ago and we will not have these debates again, we won't give in a millimeter."

That these courses are necessary has for Francken been obvious, even before the events in Cologne last New Year's night. "We have an unprecedented influx of single young men between 16 and 35 years with them, the norms and value system is completely different, these courses are mainly aimed at men but also to women. Them we want to make clear... It is not a problem here that you are working and that your husband can help in the education of the children or in the household. It is a problem if your husband beats you. "Francken follow as the example of Norway, where migrants have long been given such courses. They get lessons on how to treat women. "We will copy the Norwegian model and introduce it the coming weeks and months, in all Belgian refugee centers,".

Sp.a Chairman John Crombez Francken thinks the idea to make all asylum seekers follow the courses "useful, to not it's enough." He is shocked by the sexual assaults committed against women on New Year's night in Cologne. "If this behavior appears we must be quick and react in the hardest possible way to be very clear that this can not possibly be accepted," says the Socialist Party chairman.

"In order to form a close community rules apply. These are for everybody. Equality between men and women is perhaps the most important achievement of Western democracy. It is absolute. The groups of men who have committed ​​these degrading acts, must therefore be identified, prosecuted and punished as severely as possible, "says Crombez to Belga. If it is about people who have fled here, then the appropriate response for the sp.a president is that in this case, they can not remain here.