Mayors demand action plan to improve Gare du Midi safety

The mayors of Anderlecht and Saint-Gilles have written an open letter to Belgian railway operator SNCB’s chief executive Sophie Dutordoir about the problems in the neighbourhood around Brussels-Midi station.

The area has been a crime hotspot for a long time, but mayors Fabrice Cumps and Jean Spinette hope the letter will help improve the safety situation around the station in particular, noting the population of undocumented migrants as a major factor in increasing crime.

“Federal authorities such as Fedasil have set up a number of temporary shelters in the immediate vicinity of the station, which are now becoming permanent,” the mayors wrote.

“As a result, there is a large number of undocumented migrants roaming the area. While waiting for an answer to their fate, they are conscripted – often against their will – into criminal organisations.”

In the letter, the two mayors explain how, together with the Midi police zone, they have “assumed their responsibilities”.

They also express concern about the plans floated for a small police station in Brussels-Midi rail station, saying a larger one is needed. “In an international station with more passengers than Zaventem airport, a real police station is not a luxury,” the mayors wrote.

They call on the SNCB chief executive to add her voice to theirs and demand a national plan “as has been requested by the Brussels municipalities for more than 20 years”.

In the meantime, crime continues to pose a major problem in the area surrounding the station. A man was seriously injured in a stabbing last Friday evening on the Rue de l'Argonne in Saint-Gilles, not far from Brussels-Midi station, according to local police.

At the end of April, a fire presumably of criminal origin destroyed a restaurant and a car. Two months later, a man and a woman, both in their 40s, died when shots were fired at a cafe terrace.

In July, residents living on Boulevard du Midi and Avenue Poincaré held a meeting to encourage “numerous local, regional and federal officials, administrators, political representatives, the police, the legal profession, government departments and non-profit organisations” to take action about the security situation in the neighbourhood..

The meeting was held in the heart of the deteriorating district plagued by noise and litter, on the central reservation near the Square de l’Aviation between the two main highways. Some residents see this as a no-go zone.

"We have to deal with dirty and dangerous streets, burglaries, fights, pickpockets, illegal parking, noise pollution, unhealthy air and bad smells," the neighbourhood association said.

"We cannot put up with this any longer, unless we have a co-ordinated, forward-looking plan of action,” said the group, calling on politicians from local and regional government and the three communes concerned (Brussels city, Anderlecht and Saint-Gilles) to find a solution.

“More and more families are leaving,” the residents’ group flyer states. “Misery and rudeness are everywhere. Attempted robberies and sexual assault causes distrust at every meeting in the street.

"The police and cleaning services do their best, but they can’t keep up with the problems. Minor offences go unpunished and we suffer from slum landlords and rogue businesses. The bad management of the area around Brussels-Midi station attracts crime."

Local resident Stijn Van Houtven told Bruzz that the area is full of criminality. “The quality of life here is under a lot of pressure. Of course these are problems you see everywhere in Brussels. But here, on the central reservation, many things start happening," he said.

"This verge has become an illegal car park where all sorts of rubbish, household appliances, cooking oil, etc, pile up. Drug dealers have carte blanche. And this, despite the fact that the area has so much potential."