Belgian authorities have expressed anger over an Afghan YouTuber living in Belgium under refugee status for his videos praising the Islamist extremist Taliban regime, which currently controls Afghanistan.
Jamil Qadery, who arrived in Belgium in 2010 and received refugee status in 2021, has over 69,000 subscribers on the social media platform YouTube where he describes himself as the “voice of the unheard Afghan nation.”
“There are fewer problems now that the Taliban are here. Every person must have the freedom to express themselves, whether they are here in Belgium, Afghanistan or around the world,” Qadery said in one of his videos.
The pro-Taliban stance of many of Qadery’s videos has not gone unnoticed by Belgian officials with Member of the Chamber of Representatives Georges Dallemagne telling broadcaster RTL, “There are YouTubers who contacted us saying ‘How do we let this happen in Belgium for weeks if not months?’. He says that the Taliban regime is a great regime and that everyone should think it is great. That this regime must be promoted and supported.”
“This person has nothing to do on our territory,” he said and added, “Here is someone who claims to be fleeing a regime he is promoting today. This is absolutely unacceptable.”
Nicole de Moor, Belgium’s Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, has also expressed anger at Qadery’s videos and wants to review his refugee status.
“The asylum procedure serves to protect people who risk war or persecution, not those who are guilty of hate speech. I have asked the General Commissioner to review this person’s refugee status,” Ms. de Moor said.
A petition on the website Change.org was set up in May calling for the deportation of Qadery from Belgium and has amassed over 10,000 signatures so far.
The person behind the petition claims that Qadery has defended wanted terrorist Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior member of the notorious Haqqani Network, an affiliate of the terrorist group al-Qaeda. Haqqani is also the current acting Interior Minister of Afghanistan and a deputy leader in the Taliban.
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has also issued a $10 million reward for the arrest of Haqqani over the 2008 Kabul hotel attack which killed six people, including an American citizen. The FBI also accuses Haqqani of plotting to assassinate former Afghan President Hamid Karzai that same year.
While the Belgian Office of the Commissioner for Refugees is able to deport refugees based on hate speech, war crimes, or crimes against humanity, it remains unclear whether Qadery will be deported back to Afghanistan as Belgium joined other countries in 2021 in suspending deportations to the country.
Last year, however, the Belgian Commissioner General for Refugees did claim that the security situation in Afghanistan had improved and the country rejected hundreds of Afghan asylum claims.
Many European Union member states face great hurdles to deport radical Islamic extremists with refugee status to their home countries in the Middle East.
In Germany, it was reported this week that a well-known Islamic State terrorist, who had been involved in at least one execution and faced 30 criminal complaints, was only deported back to his native Iraq on June 8th after being in Germany for around eight years.
Despite being found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to five years in prison, Abbas R. was prevented from being deported back to Iraq as the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) believed he may risk being tortured or killed if he returned to his native country.
After years of legal battles, Abbas R. was eventually stripped of his refugee status but it took a further five additional years for him to be finally deported.
