Belgian capital Brussels is seeing a disturbing trend that has been shaking up the city. It’s gotten so bad, in fact, that on Wednesday 40 Brussels neighborhood committees and associations sounded the alarm about drug use and decreasing safety in an open letter to politicians, distributed by local press.
New police data released by Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden, at the request of Flemish conservative N-VA MP Tomas Roggeman, shows that Saint-Gilles is a hotspot for crime.
According to the figures, police recorded 3,320 crimes near the station in 2021 and 3,447 crimes during COVID-riddled 2020, with the most common offenses being theft and extortion. In 2019, the number was 4,205, while in 2018 it was lower, at 2,815.
The 2022 figures are not complete, but the first nine months saw 2,204 crimes. According to Belgium’s De Standaard daily, the numbers mean the Midi station area had almost as many criminal offenses as all stations in 13 Flemish cities — including Antwerp and Ghent — put together. “It wasn’t a surprise to me that there was a lot of criminality in general in Brussels, but what struck me was the size of the issues,” Roggeman said.
“This is a disgrace as Brussels South serves as the gateway for most of the international railway traffic, being a hub of Eurostar and Thalys,” he added.
Another number stands out, one which has been steadily growing for the past five years: drug-related crimes. In 2021, there were 372 drug-related offenses in the neighborhood around the station, more than one per day and constituting about 10 percent of overall crimes that year.
This is an increase from the 266 reported in 2020, 172 in 2019, and 67 in 2018. To those working around the station, the figures are not a surprise. H’Didouane said he has seen more drug dealers working in the area in the past five years, often trying to sneak onto hotel property and book rooms to sell or use narcotics. And they shouldn’t be a surprise to government officials either.
Drug use across Belgium has skyrocketed in recent years, from a rise in amphetamine use in 2022 to an increase in cocaine consumption in Brussels in 2021-2022. In particular, crack cocaine — a highly addictive substance which first boomed in the U.S. in the 1980s — has started flooding the streets, becoming increasingly popular among drug users.
A 2021 analysis of municipal wastewater in 13 European cities, by the EU-funded EUSEME project, found the highest amounts of crack residues in Amsterdam and Antwerp, the Belgian port city that funnels mountains of illicit drugs, particularly cocaine, into continental Europe every year. Crack has made its way to Brussels too.
Survey data from Transit, a local help center and shelter for people with drug and alcohol addiction, found that crack was the most consumed substance among hard drug takers in 2022, used by 67 percent of people surveyed. Saint-Gilles is not the only neighborhood in the city struggling to keep up with its drug problem.
Areas around other big stations in Brussels also showed a steady increase in the number of drug-related offenses, according to the data released by Verlinden. Ribaucourt and Yser on the edge of the city center have also seen more widespread drug use.
To tackle this issue, Brussels Minister-President Rudi Vervoort announced Wednesday his intention to meet with a delegation of citizens and associations on Friday. In the meantime, criminality at Brussels Midi continues to make headlines.
Last week, Sophie Dutordoir, CEO of Belgian railway company SNCB, appealed to politicians in a letter, asking for help tackling the “dramatic situation” at Brussels Midi. In the letter — which was sent to Vervoort, Belgian Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet, Verlinden and the mayors Jean Spinette of Saint-Gilles and Fabrice Cumps of Anderlecht (the region bordering the northwest side of Brussels Midi) — Dutordoir said more needs to be done to address the station’s problems, from cleanliness to safety.
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