The area around Rue de la Clinique in Cureghem was already the focus of concerns at the last Anderlecht municipal council meeting. Residents criticised the deterioration of the neighbourhood around the Belrefugees refugee centre, which has been in operation since May 2024, citing aggressive behaviour, shouting, threats, public defecation and a sense of insecurity, which they claim has become a daily occurrence.
The day after this council meeting, a new incident reignited tensions. At around 5 pm, during the Stations of the Cross, a person described as being clearly under the influence of drugs entered the Church of Notre-Dame Immaculée. According to a local resident, the person violently disrupted the prayers, knocked a cross off the altar, shouted insults and physically assaulted a parishioner.
In light of this situation, Mayor Fabrice Cumps’s office has confirmed that the Holy Week celebrations are being monitored by the police. The council has also reported a series of police operations carried out over the weekend, including five court-ordered arrests, one administrative detention, and the seizure of cash, large quantities of drugs and a bladed weapon. The police state that they wish to reduce the “negative appeal of the neighbourhood”, which is linked to the presence of dealers and a clientele in a situation characterised by poly-drug use, migration and homelessness.
Regarding the Belrefugees asylum centre, the municipality takes the view that the centre should not be held responsible for all the neighbourhood’s difficulties, whilst at the same time prescribing a tightening of security measures and a reduction in accommodation capacity from 250 to 180 places. The association condemns a structural contradiction: According to the association, limiting accommodation would mean sending more people back onto the streets, with the risk that the same disturbances will occur time and again. The municipality, for its part, emphasises that Anderlecht already bears a disproportionate burden with around 1,200 childcare places spread across seven buildings, in a district considered unsuitable for such a concentration.