The Brussels social protection institution has opened its second safe drug consumption space, LINKup, aiming to reduce drug-related problems around the Ribaucourt metro station.
Outgoing Brussels Ministers Elke Van den Brandt and Alain Maron attended the opening ceremony on Monday.
This initiative, supported by Iriscare, the Brussels-Capital Region, and non-profit organisation Transit, seeks to guide drug users towards care and reduce public drug use.
The success of GATE, the city’s first safe consumption space, demonstrated the effectiveness of such facilities. Since its launch, public drug consumption has decreased by up to 33,000 incidents, with most users coming from nearby neighbourhoods.
LINKup aims to replicate this by providing a safe space for crack and heroin consumption near the former Sunrise Hotel, helping curb issues in the area.
Opening of LINKup, the second safe drug consumption space in the Brussels-Capital Region, in Brussels, on Monday 15 December 2025.
Credit: Belga/Timon Ramboer
In a notable change, LINKup introduces a separate space for female users to address safety concerns that deterred women from using GATE, where no designated female area existed. Women make up around 20% of Brussels’ drug users, but only half have engaged with GATE’s services.
LINKup also offers a dormitory where users can stay for up to 48 hours.
While some critics fear these facilities might increase neighbourhood disturbances, Iriscare and its partners emphasise that GATE’s results prove otherwise.
Local residents have long demanded solutions to visible drug use near Ribaucourt metro station, and LINKup arrives as a step in that direction.
