{"id":461768,"date":"2026-08-04T15:36:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/08\/04\/il-dipartimento-di-stato-usa-viaggiare-in-belgio-espone-a-rischi-di-criminalita-terrorismo-e-disordini\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T17:17:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T15:17:30","slug":"the-us-state-department-travelling-to-belgium-exposes-you-to-risks-of-crime-terrorism-and-unrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/08\/04\/the-us-state-department-travelling-to-belgium-exposes-you-to-risks-of-crime-terrorism-and-unrest\/","title":{"rendered":"The US State Department: travelling to Belgium exposes you to risks of \u201ccrime, terrorism, and unrest\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 \u201cExercise increased caution\u201d in Belgium. That is what the United States is advising those travelling to the European federal state. The reasons? The presence of \u201ccrime, terrorism, and unrest\u201d. On 23 July, the US State Department changed the risk level for the European country in its<\/strong> travel advisory system,<\/span><\/strong> the government\u2019s official programme that assesses the safety of every country in the world for American travellers using a four-tier scale. Belgium has been downgraded from Level 1 \u201cExercise Normal Precautions\u201d to Level 2 \u201c<\/strong>Exercise greater caution”<\/strong>. The third and fourth are, respectively, “<\/span>Reconsider your trip” and “Do not travel”. <\/p>\n

On its official website<\/a>, the US federal agency points out that, in terms of crime, petty offences are common in the country, \u201cparticularly in the most popular tourist destinations.\u201d It also states that \u201cmost crimes committed against foreign nationals are opportunistic offences, such as purse snatching and pickpocketing.\u201d As regards terrorism, \u201cthere is a risk of terrorist violence,\u201d and it therefore advises consulting the reports on this subject produced by the Department itself. As for civil unrest, the risk stems from \u201clarge-scale demonstrations, generally peaceful, linked to the local political situation\u201d, which cause \u201cdisruption to transport and other essential services.\u201d <\/p>\n

In its guide to Belgium, among numerous other measures, the Department advises travellers to \u201cavoid demonstrations and crowds,\u201d<\/strong> to \u201cstay aware of your surroundings\u201d, to \u201cstay alert in tourist spots\u201d, and to \u201ctake care when visiting banks or ATMs.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to the local newspaper The Brussels Times<\/em>, in addition to the terrorist attacks that took place in the Belgian capital in 2016, the US decision is due to the clashes between protesters and the police<\/a> that occurred during protests against education cuts in the French-speaking part of the country. Added to this are the major national demonstrations <\/a>this year, which drew tens of thousands of people to voice their opposition to some of the federal government\u2019s austerity policies. Interviewed<\/a> by the Belgian newspaper, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Florinda Baleci<\/strong>, stated: \u201cIssuing travel advisories to its own citizens is the sole responsibility of each country,\u201d emphasising that \u201cevery state has the sovereign right to decide how to tailor its advice to its citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The US federal agency has revised the country\u2019s risk level, downgrading it in the programme that assesses the safety of every country in the world for American travellers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":461741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25712],"tags":[27071,30339,25801,31280,35188,30813,35189,27395,26326],"class_list":["post-461768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news","tag-anti-terrorism-en","tag-bart-de-wever-en","tag-belgian-cat-en","tag-bruxelles-en-3","tag-criminalita","tag-manifestations-en","tag-dipartimento-di-stato-stati-uniti","tag-education-en","tag-states-united-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461768"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":461769,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461768\/revisions\/461769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}