Belgium - ‘Femen’ Protests Child Immigration Policy On Brussels Flower Carpet (Video)

Two ‘Femen’ protesters walked on the Brussels flower carpet (which was laid down on the Grand Place) with a banner in protest of the Belgian government’s decision to lock up a Serbian mother with her four children in anticipation of their repatriation.

Many of those who had come to Brussels to visit the flower carpet (a bi-annual tradition) were enraged as they were accompanied by their children and felt this was neither the time nor the place to organize such a protest.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="nl" dir="ltr">Twee activisten houden halfnaakt protest op het bloementapijt in Brussel <a href="https://t.co/6E9fcdcTdM">https://t.co/6E9fcdcTdM</a> <a href="https://t.co/0dWb6hLKyj">pic.twitter.com/0dWb6hLKyj</a></p>&mdash; Vlaanderen Nieuws (@vlaanderennws) <a href="https://twitter.com/vlaanderennws/status/1031427416617443328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2018</a></blockquote>

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The activists said they were protesting the detention of a migrant family in the closed center in Steenokkerzeel. The two young women who crawled on the flower carpet had a banner in their hands with the inscription: "Ceci n'est pas un scandale, enfermer des enfants ça l'est" (this is not a scandal, locking up children is).

The same message was also written on their bodies. On their backs was the unmistakable message "Shame on you, Belgium."

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Visitors who filmed the protest of the two reacted indignantly saying "and the work that people put into the carpet of flowers?"

Video link underneath article: https://www.hln.be/nieuws/binnenland/halfnaakte-actievoerders-verpesten-bloementapijt-als-protest-tegen-opsluiting-migrantengezin-in-steenokkerzeel~a79edc89/

The activists indicated that although they are directly not part of the feminist protest movement Femen but they chose this form of action to pay homage to Oksana Shachko, the co-founder and ex-member of Femen who was found dead at 31 in her apartment in Paris last month.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/Femen_France?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Femen_France</a> Bravo et merci pour votre action à Bruxelles 😘<a href="https://twitter.com/FEMEN_Movement?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FEMEN_Movement</a> <a href="https://t.co/UbFuzSCbTG">https://t.co/UbFuzSCbTG</a></p>&mdash; Lukǝ Tαmbǝur 🔻 (@LucTambeur) <a href="https://twitter.com/LucTambeur/status/1031263953471647747?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2018</a></blockquote>

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The anonymous collective said that wrecking flowers and taking off their clothes is less outrageous than "the statements of our ministers and the policies they conduct. Locking up children who are fleeing the misery with which our consumer paradise is built up is scandalous."

Belgium goes to the polls in October. It is widely expected that the centre-right government will retain its majority and the Flemish nationalists NVA will remain the largest party.

Source:

https://www.hln.be/nieuws/binnenland/halfnaakte-actievoerders-verpesten-bloementapijt-als-protest-tegen-opsluiting-migrantengezin-in-steenokkerzeel~a79edc89/