A residential district of Antwerp outside the areas named in reporting on the city's drug-related violence. Belgium publishes crime statistics by police zone and municipality rather than by district, so there is no per-district figure to rate this on, and nothing area-specific turned up. The dashed outline records that as an absence of findings rather than a checked all-clear. Antwerp handles more cocaine than any other European port, and the conflict between the clans that move it is the defining safety story of the city. VRT reported that the federal judicial police in Antwerp opened 45 new investigations into drug-related violence in 2025 — explosives, shootings, kidnappings, arson — after 91 recorded incidents across the province in 2024, and that gangs increasingly recruit minors as disposable perpetrators. What that violence is, in practice, is targeted: a device left at a specific front door or car, in a dispute between people who know each other. The two 2025 explosions reported below both damaged a door and injured nobody. It is serious, it is not aimed at passers-by, and it happens in residential streets rather than where visitors go.
Berchem — Antwerp, Belgium
🟡 Local-source safety assessment · 10 areas reviewed individually Methodology →
No area-specific findings. Sources were reviewed for this area and returned nothing traveller-relevant. The rating reflects that absence together with the character of the area — it is not a positive finding of safety, and it carries less weight than a rating built on documented sources.
In detail
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Frequently asked questions
Is Berchem safe?
Wandroz rates Berchem in Antwerp as an area where the review found nothing traveller-relevant to report. That rating rests on an area-level review that reached no traveller-relevant reporting specific to Berchem — no incidents, no recurring problems, nothing documented either way — read together with the character of the area. It is not a positive finding of safety: an absence of reporting is weaker evidence than the sourced ratings elsewhere on this map, and it is marked as such wherever it appears.
What was checked for Berchem?
The same area-level review every other neighbourhood on the Antwerp map gets: local and national news, municipal and police-published material, and official surveys where they exist, searched for this specific area. Berchem returned nothing traveller-relevant, which is common for smaller administrative areas without a press profile of their own. Where a review does return something, the sources are named on the area's page.
Is Berchem a good area to stay in as a tourist?
Nothing documented argues against it. For a stay, weigh that against the areas on the Antwerp map whose ratings are backed by named sources, and check recent reviews for the specific street. You can search accommodation already scoped to this area using the Booking.com link on this page.
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