The office of Jan Jambon (of the New Flemish Alliance) made known this weekend that Molenbeek addresses will not be checked individually as the Interior Minister had expressed the desire to do in November after the Paris attacks, Sudpresse and the Mediahuis newspapers report on Monday. This announcement comes after the Alderwoman of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Françoise Schepmans, indicated her opposition to such a measure.
Address checks are solely a communal responsibility. It is thus impossible for the Minister to proceed without the support of the local authority.
Moreover, the Chief of Police of the Brussels-West area, Johan De Becker, explained that exhaustive checks were impossible for practical reasons. "Some 95.000 individuals live in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean and it is not possible to check every address."
(Source: Belga)
