TEC drivers denounce the continued presence of drug addicts in the tunnel at Place Saint-Lambert in Liège, where they park their bus. An investigation signed RTL info and Sudinfo.
Bus drivers have told us about their feeling of insecurity when they park their buses in the tunnel which leads to Place Saint-Lambert, in the center of Liège. The presence of drug addicts, at all hours of the day and night, is a source of fear. “This has been going on for years, they are there all the time squatting in the tunnel“, explains one of them, who prefers to remain anonymous. “During the day, there are only a few, but at night there can be more than twenty. They go to buy their fix in town and come back to inject themselves, then collapse. Dealers are also present to directly provide them with what they need.“Another driver goes even further:”They are often seen urinating, defecating, and even having sexual intercourse. There, on the ground, on concrete or boxes, it’s really distressing.“
There, we met Laura, 32, a drug addict and mother. She confirms that there are many taking refuge in this tunnel: “There is a little warmth, a roof.“Our interlocutor is addicted to hard drugs: “Cocaine, heroin”. A few meters from the tunnel, she takes her dose in broad daylight.”I overdosed three times in one week“, she knows, with each dose, Laura risks her life. “It’s our only comfort, it’s an endless chain“, she testifies.
She explains that there are sometimes around twenty of them in this tunnel. As for sexual acts, she confides that it happens, sometimes for payment.
“We are witnessing this spectacle”
Thirteen bus lines still use this tunnel, so this concerns hundreds of drivers from the Jemeppe, Rocourt and Oreye depots.
The latter often have to park their bus in the tunnel for several minutes while waiting to leave. “We are here, in our bus, watching this show“, says another driver. “Sometimes we have to go out to go to the toilet in our TEC room which is in the tunnel…“The situation is particularly difficult for female drivers.
The tunnel is located in the city center, only about twenty meters from the stops where thousands of passengers board every day.
“When they see us, they turn around”
Faced with repeated requests from its drivers and after developing an action plan with the police, the TEC decided to go further. For two weeks, a private security service has been funded to ensure a continuous presence at the entrance to the tunnel, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. “When they see us, they turn around“, explains one of the guards. “But once we leave, they all come back… And every morning, we have to get them out.“
The Liège police also included the tunnel in the priority rounds of officers on duty in the city center. But the problem remains difficult to resolve. “We work in close collaboration with the TEC. These places known to them and to us are the subject of very regular visits. In addition to this, we have further strengthened certain action plans aimed at better securing these places.“, says Jean-Marc Demelenne, head of the Liège police force.
He goes further: “But drug addiction is a social problem that must be addressed by all stakeholders. We redirect certain people towards social services, but I really think that it is a problem that must be considered in all its diversity, with the medical world, because unfortunately, there are also many people who are sick, who are psychologically weak, or even in a state of psychiatric distress. And therefore, it is all the actors who must mobilize if we want to defeat this phenomenon.”
Liège drug addiction tunnel Saint-Lambert TEC drivers
