Belgian Minister Unveils Program to Help Identification of Islamists

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) - Belgian Social Integration Minister Denis Ducarme announced that the country's social workers would be taught to identify individuals subject to Islamist radicalization among social aid applicants starting in September.

"I had an opportunity to learn how important it is to identify radicalization and that efforts to counter this threat should be shared not only by the police and judicial system. That is why it is now possible … to demand that justice centers, which employ social workers, should be instructed to detect radicalization," Ducarme said, as quoted by the Belgian Le Vif magazine.

The minister announced that 100,000 euros ($119,690) had been allocated to implement this initiative.

READ MORE: Europe Needs Self-Sufficiency in Defense — Belgian Prime Minister

In August, La Libre Belgique newspaper reported, citing the Belgian Financial Intelligence Processing Unit (CTIF-CFI), that the terrorists who carried out attacks in Paris in November 2015 and Brussels in March 2016 were financed by individuals receiving welfare payments, specifically unemployment compensation.

The country has intensified its efforts to prevent terrorist activity since March 22, 2016, when two explosions hit the Brussels airport, with a third detonating inside a train carriage at the Maalbeek metro station half an hour later. A total of 32 people were killed, and over 300 more were injured. The Daesh* terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia