Stabbing at Brussels Airport: Flemish PM Diependaele calls for police reinforcements

An incident involving two homeless men occurred at Brussels Airport last Tuesday evening. A 53-year-old man stabbed a 27-year-old man with a box cutter. The man in his twenties was taken to hospital with serious injuries and underwent surgery. The motive for the attack is still unclear, according to the Halle-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office.

Flemish PM Matthias Diependaele is calling for reinforcements to the federal police at Belgium’s busiest airport. ‘The pressure on security and public order is very real today, partly due to all the nuisances being caused by individuals and homelessness in and around the airport.’

‘Reinforcements are urgently needed so that the police can once again fulfil their role to the full and travellers can count on a safe and efficient arrival, day in, day out.’

Long waiting times too

Diependaele has criticised the situation at the airport on several occasions in recent months. He has already called for measures to address the waiting times at immigration control that can sometimes run up and has sent two letters on this matter to Federal Interior Minister Bernard Quintin (Francophone liberal MR).

The response from the minister is deemed “insufficiently specific”, and so the Flemish Prime Minister now wants to discuss the matter at the next meeting of the consultation committee representing Belgium’s multifarious governments.

‘Now that a stabbing has also taken place, we are questioning not only the long waiting times, but the overall safety of all passengers at our airport,’ he said. ‘Given the clear impact on Flanders, we are monitoring this matter closely.’