Drug-related crime is spreading in the Belgian capital, with Brussels’ train stations particularly hard hit.
After reports of a deteriorating security situation around Brussels-South station, further commentary has come to light showing Brussels-North station is just as bad.
Local resident Jonas van Overwalle told Belgian newspaper HLN that he suffered two serious assaults in a short time. He said he and his girlfriend are now afraid to leave their own home because “junkies are smoking crack on the doorstep”.
Van Overwalle described one incident where he had tried to report an apparent rape taking place. When he arrived at the police station nearby, a drugged-up junky approached him and punched him in the face.
The police intervened but let the assailant go. “We know the guy”, van Overwalle said officers told him, adding that the attacker was infamous for harassing the police, terrorising the neighbourhood and has been arrested dozens of times.
Van Overwalle said the police told him “not to bother about that man”, but did act upon the reported rape.
“I don’t see a future for our neighbourhood,” van Overwalle told HLN. “I understand the officers – they know that the prosecutor will just let such a man go – but this makes me lose my respect for the police.
“Should my girlfriend and I arm ourselves to protect each other?” he added.
Van Overwalle said: “It was already the second attack in less than a month. I was fu**ing dealt with in harsher terms than the man who attacked me.
“Maybe I [should] be glad I didn’t get all beat up like the guy next to me in the waiting room.”
Concerning his neighbourhood, he said: “Last week, there was a fight where a man tried to stab a woman with a broken bottle and, on the same day, my friend saw a junkie lying between two cars on the street, stabbed by another drug user.”
Earlier this year, 16 “safe spaces” were inaugurated in the neighbourhood around Brussels-North train station. These are locations such as shops with a green logo where passers-by can seek refuge if they need help, for instance, in case of harassment. They are meant to enhance “the feeling of security” for locals and visitors.
In the past couple of years, there have been shootings, stabbings, the murder of a Nigerian prostitute and the death of a police officer, amid drug-related crimes and significant homelessness. Many residents speak of daily street harassment that women, in particular, experience when walking through the neighbourhood.
HLN’s report on the Brussels-North situation, one of the three main train hubs in Brussels, comes shortly after a video illustrating high crime in and around Brussels-Midi.
Bxl Noord, deze ochtend: ik open m'n voordeur en word meteen aangesproken door een passant, die me vraagt om de politie te bellen want 100m verder zou net een vrouw geweldadig zijn verkracht. Ik ben op m'n hoede, want in deze buurt is niemand te vertrouwen.
— Jonas Van Overwaelle (@JonasVanO) August 4, 2023
