After five provincial consultation moments with stakeholders on nuisance caused by transmigrants at highway parking lots, Flemish minister Lydia Peeters has come up with a plan of action and an investment budget of no less than 38 million euros. During the consultation moments, an explanation was given about the Flemish network plan, the existing surveillance contracts and the various (federal) police actions.
The total amount of 10 million euros in 2021 will be invested in numerous (infrastructural) measures such as the installation of cameras, the closing of car parks with fencing or the installation of structures on the central reservation against overflowing motorways. Minister Peeters will also renew the assignment of the private security teams (2 million euros). Although enforcement of human smuggling and transmigration is within the competence of the Federal Road Police, Minister wishes Peeters to contribute here too
“Problems with transmigrants at highway car parks is a social issue. Unfortunately, the Roads and Traffic Agency cannot solve this problem on its own, which is why the federal level was also closely involved in the development of the action plan. At the beginning of 2021, we will start realizing additional infrastructure measures in the various provinces and I will continue to rely on the private security teams. Over the past two months, we have incorporated the input of all stakeholders into a concrete action plan, to which we will offset 10 million euros in 2021.
At the beginning of September 2020, the Flemish Minister of Mobility and Public Works Lydia Peeters (Open Vld) took the initiative, together with the then Federal Minister of the Interior and Security Pieter De Crem (CD&V), to organize provincial consultation moments to arrive at a common approach to motorway car parks and the transmigration problem.
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