Tervuren will not set up a dedicated hotline for racism and discrimination reports. Mayor Thomas Geyns (Open VLD, Voor Tervuren) had earlier expressed doubts about its necessity. And no action plan against racism will be introduced. Tervuren says it will focus on awareness-raising and collaboration with schools and associations.
On June 26, the town council will turn down the request of Hand in Hand Tegen Racisme Tervuren, advocating for both a reporting hotline and an anti-racism action plan. Geyns is not fundamentally opposed to the idea but has previously noted that other organizations and public services, such as Unia, already address these issues.
Tervuren currently operates a complaints platform — https://www.tervuren.be/meldpunt — for grievances about municipal services. For other matters, such as waste collection, illegal dumping or faulty streetlights, residents are referred to services like Interrand or Fluvius. A hotline could also raise thorny questions as to how handle complaints submitted in languages other than Dutch. Around 44.5% of the residents are of non-Belgian origin with over 115 nationalities.
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Mayor Geyns has also maintained that there are rarely reports of racism or hate incidents in Tervuren — only one or two cases in recent years. “There’s talk on social media of multiple incidents, but none of these have been formally registered with the police,” Geyns told VRT NWS after Hand in Hand submitted its petition.
One complainant claimed it was impossible to report racist incidents despite multiple visits to the police station. According to the allegation, cases were only officially recorded in the presence of a native Dutch-speaking resident.
N-word and ‘monkey’ at school
Faced with the administration’s decision, Hand in Hand Tervuren has called on residents to anonymously share their experiences. The group collected a number of testimonies suggesting racism may persist locally. Several incidents reportedly occurred in schools, where children were allegedly called the N-word or referred to as “monkey.” Some parents criticized what they saw as slow and inadequate responses from schools. One parent, though, positively appraised the reaction of a director at one communal school following an allegedly racist incident.
At a sports club, a child of color was allegedly bullied, with other children pretending to wipe their hands after physical contact during games. In a local café, a person of color was reportedly told, “Black people aren’t welcome here.” Hand in Hand Tervuren emphasized that these accounts demonstrate why concerns about should not be dismissed.
The group had hoped municipal leaders would better acknowledge these realities and consider appropriate measures.
Earlier this month, Tervuren’s Africa Museum hosted a delegation of United Nations racial justice experts as part of a fact-finding mission to Belgium. The UN team issued stark conclusions, finding that Africans, people of African descent, and others perceived as “foreign” — including Belgian nationals born in the country — face systemic racism, discrimination, and related intolerance.
🚨 Witnessed or experienced discrimination? You don’t have to stay silent. Hand in Hand Tervuren reminds residents that you can report discrimination online via the federal agency Unia.
🇧🇪 Nederlands: 👉https://www.unia.be/nl/discriminatie-melden
🇧🇪 Français: 👉 https://www.unia.be/fr/signaler-discrimination
🇬🇧 English: 👉 https://www.unia.be/en/report-discrimination
🇩🇪 Deutsch: 👉 https://www.unia.be/de/diskriminierung-melden
Author: Dafydd ab Iago. © Article and photos licensed © 2024 for Tervuren+ under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
