Destination for high-speed trains from Paris, London or Frankfurt, the Brussels South Station is not only the largest railway hub in Belgium (more than 50,000 daily passengers). For thousands of international passengers, it is also the first impression they receive of the community capital and the image, for a long time, could not have been more gloomy. Dirt, drug use, assaults, robberies, begging and refugee and homeless camps are some of the elements of the landscape that awaits you at the so-called Gare du Midi, where more crimes are recorded than in the thirteen largest stations in Flanders together, according to the press in the north of the country.
One only has to imagine the protagonist of the series Emily in Paris visiting Brussels to take charge of the “apocalyptic” scenario that she would find herself with, suggests a letter published in August that fantasizes about the type of welcome to the heart of Europe that would have the American “As soon as they step foot out of the Thalys and into the station, a violent stench of urine invades their nostrils” while, further on, a drug addict throws his crack pipe to the ground… “When she leaves, dressed in a spring miniskirt, Emily receives inappropriate insinuations and compliments from the locals”, imagine, to shake consciences, Jean Kitenge and Laurye Joncret, from the liberal youth (DéFi).
The station is “the shame of Belgium”, several local media have noted in their editorials this summer when, finally, after the story of a terrifying night experienced by a family from Antwerp who missed the last train and waited for the next one on the street , several violent events and the dramatic SOS launched by the railway company itself, neighbors and merchants have managed to attract the attention of public opinion. “Our neighborhoods are facing a growing number of refugees, homeless people and beggars,” a phenomenon to which after the pandemic the consumption and trafficking of crack has been added, dozens of local associations report in a forum, which warn of the effects of growing violence and insecurity.
“People no longer want to see their children grow up here and leave, older people do not dare to go out at night, parents no longer let adolescents, women and members of the LGTBI community go to school alone. they face sexist and demeaning comments”, denounce the inhabitants of the neighborhood, who say they feel like “second class” citizens and are outraged that the administrations are not capable of coordinating and reacting to such a concentration of problems, which is not seen anywhere another Belgian city.
“Things weren’t like this before,” says Mariluz Higuera, 77, of the Hispano-Belga Association, founded in 1964 by Spanish immigrants like her parents, who came from the Basque Country to work in the mines. Many of these families settled in the working-class neighborhood of Saint Gilles, where today more than 150 nationalities live together. The members of the association – many of whom are retired – are now afraid when they go to their premises from the station, he says. “It has been a tremendous change,” laments Mariluz, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1960 and remembers a “very clean” station when she arrived in Midi.
The response has finally come from the federal level, which is preparing a comprehensive plan to restore security and direct people in need to the respective social services. So far, two major “cleanup” operations have been carried out. “I don’t think it will be of much use,” Emilio, in charge of a cafe in the station square, commented pessimistically on Thursday, while dozens of police officers carried out controls and arrests, accompanied by disinfection patrols. “Look at those three flags,” he says, pointing to some posts with frayed rags. “Only the black stripe remains of the Belgian. The one in Brussels and the European one have disintegrated for years… They haven’t even bothered to replace them, what neglect, what a shame!” he laments, fed up with confronting the young people who sit in front of the terrace to rob tourists , or drug addicts who ask them for money. The police, for their part, lament the lack of resources. The federal government’s announcement that it will deny asylum requests to single men to give priority to families (the country lacks sufficient reception beds and some 3,000 people sleep on the street) has sown doubts, however, about the winter that wait for this station, final stop of all the problems of Brussels.
