Mother suspected of abandoning baby in laundrette is questioned and released

The mother of a baby abandoned in a laundrette in Anderlecht last week has been found and arrested after a man claiming to be the child’s father went to the police.

Last Saturday, a woman with a three-month-old baby in a grey pram entered a launderette on Rue de la Clinique shortly before 17.00. After a few moments, she fled in the direction of Rue Brogniez, leaving the child behind.

A local resident alerted the emergency services when she found the child crying in the laundrette and emergency services immediately transferred the girl to hospital for a medical examination.

Because it was not possible to identify the people involved using CCTV footage, the Brussels public prosecutor's office issued a wanted persons notice to identify the baby and the woman who abandoned her.

A man who claimed to be the father but who had never legally recognised the child went to the police and gave them the identity of the mother. The woman was found a day later in a snack bar in Laeken and arrested.

The child is waiting to be placed with a suitable foster family.

“In most situations, this is the ideal solution for the child to continue growing up in a family,” said Jessica Cocquyt, director of an emergency foster care service.

“We're getting more and more requests for children who need to be sheltered. We don't have enough foster families.”

An investigation is under way to determine the exact circumstances of the incident, according to the public prosecutor's office, which will make no further comment on the case.

The incident has reignited criticism of the lack of a so-called “foundling hatch” - or baby box - meaning a safe place for parents to anonymously leave children that they can no longer care for. Antwerp has had one for several decades.

An initiative for such a hatch in Evere two years ago was called off and since then, no one else has picked up the thread. The Anderlecht CPAS is now calling for a new debate on the issue.

“Those who leave a baby behind only do so as a very last resort in a dramatic situation,” said CPAS president Mustapha Akouz.

“I don't want to make any judgement about what happened. I do want to give young children the chance to survive. Imagine if the baby had been put outside in winter.”