Officials told Postmedia News that Dejaeger was arrested Monday and was being held in a detention centre for people in the country illegally. Officials said he is awaiting his eventual expulsion to Canada but were not able to provide a timeline.
Dejaeger, 63, who worked as an Oblate missionary in Nunavut, faces six sex charges related to the sexual molestation of Inuit children in incidents alleged to have occurred in Igloolik in the early 1980s.
After serving a five-year prison sentence on convictions related to sex charges involving children in the Nunavut community of Baker Lake, Dejaeger fled Canada for Belgium in 1995.
The Igloolik allegations were investigated by RCMP Cpl. Tom Power in 1993 and 1994, but Dejaeger never appeared in court to face the charges.
More recently, the Belgian government discovered that Dejaeger lost his Belgian citizenship when he became a Canadian citizen some time after 1977.
This past Sept. 15, the Belgian government issued a statement saying the disgraced priest was no longer a Belgian citizen.
Katrien Jansseune, a spokeswoman for the Belgian immigration department, is quoted on the blog of Joris van der Aa, a Belgian crime journalist, saying that Belgium wants to ship Dejaeger back to Canada.
Canada child sex priest Eric Dejaeger held in Belgium
Belgian authorities are seeking to expel a Canadian priest accused of sexually abusing Inuit children.
The Reverend Eric Dejaeger, a Belgian native, is wanted in Canada on warrants involving alleged crimes against Inuit children more than 30 years ago.
Father Dejaeger, a 63-year-old Canadian citizen, was arrested and charged in Belgium with overstaying a visa.
Warrants were issued in Nunavut province in 2002 for his arrest. Interpol has also issued a warrant.
Wanted in IgloolikBelgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bart Ourvry said on Wednesday that Father Dejaeger had been arrested for overstaying a three-month visitor’s visa and would be sent to Canada.
In 1990, Father Dejaeger was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to nine charges of sexually assaulting children between 1983 and 1987 in the remote community of Baker Lake, in what is now Nunavut territory.
He was released after 18 months, then travelled to Belgium after fresh allegations emerged.
He is currently wanted on six criminal charges of sexually assaulting children between 1978 and 1982 in the remote settlement of Igloolik in Nunavut, the CBC network reported.