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Brussels’ main international railway station is a hellhole. 

Just ask the people who work there.

Despite a beefed-up police presence at Brussels Midi — Belgium’s gateway to Europe — crime is rampant, with recent shootings and stabbings leaving passengers, employees and business owners in the area fearing for their lives.

“It’s the worst place I’ve ever worked at,” said an employee at a confectionery store inside Brussels Midi. “I have been all over Europe and this is the worst station.” 

This year alone has seen several bloody incidents around the station. In April, a person was stabbed inside the metro station; while in June, two people died in a shooting at a nearby café. In August, one person was injured in another shooting near the opposite exit of the station. And that’s to say nothing of the drugs, shoplifting and scuffling between gangs. 

“The situation is dramatic,” City of Brussels Mayor Philippe Close told POLITICO, as he later zeroed in on a key issue affecting both Midi station and the capital more widely. “This is the biggest problem in Belgium: Everybody says ‘this is not my responsibility.’”

POLITICO spoke to authorities about the troubled station, and also to several owners and staff at businesses in and around Brussels Midi about their experiences with crime in the area.

While workers slammed law enforcement and politicians for not being present or not doing enough to combat the problem, authorities blamed each other for the security lapses.

‘I don’t want to die here’

At around 1:30 a.m. on a night in June, Karim, the owner of a restaurant outside the train station, was preparing to pull down the shutters of his establishment when he heard gunfire and people screaming. 

He immediately ran into the street to discover that four individuals had been shot outside of Café Taverne Astoria, located in a street behind his restaurant. Two people died and two were severely injured, local media reported.

“It was shocking,” he said, “but not surprising.”

For Karim, the violence around the station has reached boiling point. If the situation doesn’t improve, he said, he will sell up and move his business elsewhere. “I’m not afraid to die, but I don’t want to die here,” he added.

Karim, along with others POLITICO spoke to, is not new to crime scenes and police tape around Midi. Most people, citing concerns about the security situation, declined to speak on the record or asked for anonymity.

The confectionery store employee said he had witnessed everything from knife fights to “many, many” thefts. 

In one day, six people came into the store and stole items off the shelves in three hours, he said. The shoplifting happened so often that he no longer bothers reporting it to the authorities.

“What are they going to do?” he said, shrugging. “Laws in Belgium are not really laws.”

According to Christophe Vandeviver, research professor of criminology at Ghent University, crime rates in and around train stations are high because of the large number of people on site and the high level of anonymity.

“There is an optimum in between where you have a certain amount of people on the streets which makes it safe,” he said. “But beyond that number, when there are too many people on the streets, no-one feels inclined or responsible to intervene when something is happening.”

Action plan flop

Brussels’ crime wave is so serious, it’s even caught royal attention. 

The king of Belgium expressed concern during a visit to Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, in February. Contacted by POLITICO, a spokesperson for the king said that he “is always concerned about societal challenges in Belgium,” but declined to comment on a matter of policy.

About 3,500 crimes were committed at Midi each year between 2018 and 2022, according to data released last year — the most common being theft, extortion and drug-related offenses. That’s almost as many as at all stations in 13 Flemish cities combined.

The situation reached a crisis point last year, after POLITICO and other media outlets highlighted the issues, prompting Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden to launch an action plan to tackle “nuisance, crime and poor hygiene conditions” at the transport hub. 

Among the plan’s recommendations was a greater police presence, including a new dedicated police station, as well as better lighting and Wi-Fi hotspots. 

One year on, however, the situation has not improved. The promised police bureau has not yet opened and crime is still flagrant.

The Police Zone Midi, responsible for the area around the station, and the interior ministry did not respond to POLITICO’s request for crime statistics at Midi for 2023 and 2024. But Brussels-wide statistics published for 2023 showed the crime rate across the city increased by 3 percent, bucking declines in Flanders (down 42 percent) and Wallonia (52 percent).

National Railway Company of Belgium (SNCB) spokesperson Tom Guillaume said the situation at Brussels Midi was “complex.”

“The challenges are many, and involve different players with shared responsibilities,” he told POLITICO.

He said that SNCB — which owns the station — has carried out a series of actions to improve the safety of passengers and employees at the station, such as improving the lighting in and around the building. “We also carry out regular cleaning operations in and around the station. These two actions help to improve the cleanliness of the premises and passengers’ sense of security,” he said.

At a hotel near Midi, a receptionist simply laughed when POLITICO asked if crime was on the rise. “What crime?” the employee replied sarcastically. An employee at the station said he had been specifically instructed not to talk about “the situation,” adding he would be fired if he did so. 

The employees and business owners POLITICO spoke to lamented that when police did arrest suspects, they were released so quickly that they would see them back at the station later that same day.

“There is no day when something isn’t happening around here,” said restaurant owner Karim. He explained that he had lost customers to delivery services such as Uber Eats as they no longer wanted to visit the area in person.

The authorities were often of no help, he added. A few weeks before he witnessed a knife fight and called the police three times but, he said, they never arrived.

“Every city with a train station has crime, but Midi is the worst,” he said.

Blame game

Midi station is located at the intersection of three municipalities of the metropolitan area of Brussels — Saint-Gilles, Anderlecht and the City of Brussels. This means that the administration of the area necessitates coordination among these three municipalities. 

That’s never been Belgium’s strong suit. 

“This distribution of responsibilities might make addressing the issues challenging,” said criminology professor Vandeviver, adding that “nobody feels responsible.”

Close, mayor of the City of Brussels, blamed inaction from the federal government and the lack of interest in investing money in Brussels.

“Sometimes it’s more efficient to find some money to help Antwerp than Brussels,” he said. 

Commenting on the action plan proposed by the interior minister last year, Close said: “They decided one year ago to open a commissariat, a police bureau in the station. It’s not the case. To open a police bureau is not so difficult.

“You don’t need one year,” he sighed.

Guillaume, the SNCB spokesperson, said, “A police station will soon be opening its doors in the Bruxelles-Midi building. The opening of this station will enhance the visibility of the police force.” Asked via email when the police station is expected to open, Guillaume replied: “Unfortunately, the exact date is not yet known…”

Nick Gyselinck, a spokesperson for Interior Minister Verlinden, told POLITICO that the initial response from various stakeholders to the proposed action plan was very weak. 

“No answer came to tackle the various phenomena in and around stations … as it was not possible to bring together all the services and partners,” he said.

Someone do something … anything 

According to Close, drug traffic coming into Belgium from the port of Antwerp and transiting through Midi station is one of the biggest problems. 

He suggested the government should invest more in the federal police because, he says, “it’s the people who can also do all the inquiry, all the action, in the whole country, not only in a specific zone.”

The interior minister’s office said that it is already pushing to tackle drug-based crime.

“Minister Verlinden has made the war on drugs a spearhead of the past legislature, both nationally and internationally,” said Gyselinck, explaining that the interior minister has allocated funds both in the federal and railway police “to strengthen security.”

According to criminology professor Vandeviver, an effective measure to reduce crime in train stations would be to reinforce the police presence during the hours when crimes are most likely to happen. 

The employee at the confectionery store suggested making it more difficult to enter the station, such as requiring commuters to first have to purchase and scan a ticket. 

“I believe there are solutions, but someone needs to step in and put them to work,” he said.

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