“It is clear to me that there is a problem in Brussels itself. A lot of the terrorists themselves were home grown, radicalized within the city of Brussels itself and gone to Syria and gained terrible experiences there and have brought them back,” Duncan said.
On Tuesday, at least 31 people were killed and some 300 injured in two bomb blasts in Brussels' Zaventem airport and an explosion at a metro station in the city center. The Daesh jihadist group, outlawed in many countries, including Russia and the United State, has claimed responsibility for the blasts.
The lawmaker was in Brussels at the time of the attacks and witnessed events from his European Parliament office. The Maelbeek metro station, the site of the most deadly Tuesday attack, is located just hundreds of meters away from the European Parliament building, as well as other major EU institutions.
“The point is that there is something rotten in a part of Brussels that no one is addressing. That’s the real problem. It is nothing to do, in my mind, with a bigger question about whether we are safer, or not safer inside or outside the EU,” Duncan said, adding that the United Kingdom has also faced a home-grown terrorist threat for many years.
Both the United Kingdom and Belgium have been significant sources of IS recruits. Belgium has contributed the most IS recruits per capita than any other Western country, with the total number coming to over 500 in 2015, according to the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR). The United Kingdom has contributed over 700 IS recruits, ICSR figures show.