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Africa

Dispute over UN migration pact fractures Belgian government

Associated Press
Published | Updated

BRUSSELS – Belgium's center-right coalition government is fighting for its survival after the largest partner party said it would not back a global U.N.-backed migration pact.

The right-wing N-VA party started a social media campaign against the migration pact Tuesday, but it was quickly withdrawn. The campaign featured pictures of Muslim women with their faces covered and stated the U.N. pact focused on enabling migrants to retain the cultural practices of their homelands.

"We made an error," N-VA leader Bart De Wever told VRT network after the campaign received widespread criticism.

De Wever apologized for the pictures of women wearing face-covering niqab in western Europe, but immediately added "these pictures are not fake. You can take pictures like this every day in Brussels. It is the stark reality."

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel pledged at United Nations headquarters in September that he would go to a meeting in Marrakech, Morocco where the U.N.'s Global Compact Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration is to be signed next week.

Amid the N-VA upheaval, a Cabinet meeting was canceled Tuesday afternoon and Michel resumed consultations with vice-premiers looking for a way out of the crisis. Still, the options were slimming down.

Remarking on the party's withdrawn campaign, Christian Democrat Vice Premier Kris Peeters said: "I only have one word for this — indecent."

The United Nations says the compact will promote safe and orderly migration and reduce human smuggling and trafficking.

The N-VA said it would force Belgium into making immigration concessions. "In our democracy, we decide. The sovereignty is with the people," the party said in a statement.

Many experts said the accord is non-binding, but the N-VA said it still went too far and would give even migrants who were in Belgium illegally many additional rights.

The U.N. compact was finalized in July with only the U.S. staying out. Several European nations have since pulled out of signing the accord during the Dec. 10-11 conference in Morocco.