2023-09-05 10:26:00
The controversy continues to swell in Belgium regarding poverty, unsanitary conditions and insecurity around the largest rail hub in the country, which sees 50,000 travelers pass by every day.
The Gare du Midi, a “district of shame” in Brussels? Drug addiction, wandering undocumented and homeless people, mental health problems… The largest railway junction in the country, gateway to the European capital, crystallizes all the social and security issues of the city.
Behind the counter of a chocolate factory, Sylvie, who has worked inside the station for twenty-four years, claims to have seen the situation gradually deteriorate: “Now we see everything, people who use drugs, fights … But what is most shocking are the extremes: there are businessmen and European civil servants who come to take their train and a few meters away there are very poor people. The contrast is impressive.”
In the large hall leading to the Thalys and Eurostar platforms, but especially in the surrounding streets and near the metro stations, the scenes of crack consumption, people in a state of extreme intoxication or sleeping on the sidewalks have become common. Added to this is an increase in drug trafficking, delinquency and incivility, denounced this summer by several committees of residents who are worried regarding the disintegration of the social fabric in their neighborhood. What relaunch the controversy around insecurity in the area and especially around the failures of the different levels of the Belgian “institutional lasagna” in the management of this station where 50,000 travelers pass through every day.
Poor management of urban planning
Under the big billboard indicating the trains leaving for all of Europe, some passengers are grieving. “It’s dirty, unsanitary. This has been going on for months, even years, and nothing has been done. Politicians keep passing the buck to each other,” says this Flemish forty-something, who takes the train here three times a week. Between the municipalities, the Brussels region, the federal government and the railway company SNCB, cooperation is indeed often ineffective. The Gare du Midi has suffered for years from poor management of urban development. In terms of security, skills are also shared: the interior of the station and the platforms are monitored by rail security and the federal police. But the surrounding district depends on the municipality of Saint-Gilles.
And in the opinion of Jean Spinette, mayor, the numbers are lacking. “The Gare du Midi in the town of Saint-Gilles is as if the imperial ship from “Star Wars” had landed in a small village. However, it is an international zone, like Zaventem airport. We need federal support with agents who stay permanently in the station, who know the public and who can register complaints, ”he says. Its main demand: the reopening of a federal police station within the station, closed ten years ago. This was already the request of Sophie Dutordoir, the director of the SNCB who, faced with a situation which she considered “dramatic”, had sounded the alarm this summer in an open letter to all the Belgian authorities.
These calls for help now seem to have been heard. At the end of August, the government announced a major action plan bringing together the various players concerned. Objective: to tackle criminal phenomena, better care for homeless people and drug addicts and initiate adaptation work and the construction of new infrastructures. In the process, two high-profile police operations have been organized in recent days, in collaboration with the Foreigners Office, local authorities and cleaning services. Result: regarding 80 arrests.
“Police operations weaken people who come to seek refuge”
But for the voluntary sector, the response must be accompanied by an increase in places in emergency accommodation centres. “Today, the police ask us where they can redirect people wandering in the station, but unfortunately we have few solutions because the reception network is completely saturated”, laments Magali Pratte, management consultant. crisis at Bruss’help. This homeless aid organization points to the explosion of precariousness throughout the Brussels region: in 2022, Bruss’help identified more than 7,000 people on the street, compared to 5,000 in 2020. police weaken the people who come to seek refuge in the station. They leave hastily, and may lose the few belongings they have. It only hides and displaces part of the problem,” she adds.
Busy filling the drinks fridge at the newsstand, Emmanuel is also dubious, and annoyed: “At the moment there is a strong police presence, yes. But once the police are gone, in my opinion it will be back to square one. It’s always the same thing.”
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