A sharp rise in crime around the Brussels-Midi train station has gained public attention in Belgium after a video of a family left stranded there on the night of July 22 went viral.
While stuck at the main city station, the family is said to have witnessed attacks, robberies and even a stabbing.
The father of the family called the police several times, he said, but to no avail. “I never thought I would experience something of this nature. I found it especially traumatic for my children,” he added.
The area around Brussels-Midi has had a poor reputation for a while but things seem to have deteriorated. Observers say the police are regularly attacked there, social workers have stopped operating effectively and other disturbing incidents are happening every day. Locals feel unsafe and have demanded action.
The main driver of the rising crime appears to be a growing number of drug-takers congregating there, with crack cocaine users seeming to be especially problematic among homeless people.
The Brussels Government has installed an “injection room” at the station where addicts can take drugs under the supervision of trained staff.
The family stranded on July 22, who were returning from a holiday in Morocco, had missed the last train to Antwerp and were forced to remain at Brussels-Midi.
Security services allegedly ordered them to leave the station and once outside, the family saw people being harassed, attacked and robbed. They also reportedly witnessed a stabbing.
The shocked family said there was “blood on the sidewalk. It looked like a war zone”.
“The littlest one had no awareness yet, but my 13-year-old son burst into tears. He thought we were going to be next [to be attacked]. They call it the European capital, but I now understand why Trump once called it a ‘hellhole’,” the father of the family said.
A spokesman for the Brussels-Midi said they were offered the opportunity to stay at the station but that they had declined to do so.
Although local police patrol the area around the station, only the understaffed federal police are responsible for dealing with what happens within it.
The Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region Rudy Vervoort said in an answer to a parliamentary question that over the past five months, police were called to the area 238 times, requiring 1,600 officers, or some 6,700 man-hours.
Businesses are now complaining in the Belgian media. Tourists in the neighbourhood are advised by hotel owners to walk straight to their hotel and not talk to anyone en route to avoid pickpockets.
Shops and stores in the area around the station have told media that they have to call police several times a week. The local Sushi Shop revealed it had a panic button to contact security, which it said it needed to do on a regular basis. One Italian restaurant owner decided to quit his business and look for another job after people threw the heavy base of a parasol through the glass front door of his restaurant on July 21.
Another hotel owner in the area claimed a customer had been threatened with a knife in June, while a colleague had a revolver levelled at him in December.
