How Belgian government got caught up in human smuggling Former Belgian state secretary Theo Francken followed a sectarian agenda on Syria - which ended up with a party colleague being found guilty of human smuggling. (Photo: The Council of the European Union) Brussels, 14. Jan, 07:03 Melikan Kucam, a member of the Mechelen city council in Belgium for the Flemish nationalist party New Flemish Alliance (NVA), was sentenced by a court on Tuesday (12 January) to eight years in prison for human smuggling. Kucam in 2015 was given free reign by then Belgian state secretary for asylum and migration,...