"From Charybde to Scylla"-a documentary on Roma children expelled from Belgium to Serbia

 

From Charybde to Scylla...

De Charybde en Scylla...


Bernard De Vos, Délégué Général aux droits de l'enfant de la communauté française, Belgium

« Beginning of May, I went to Serbia to follow the track of a Roma family that has been expelled from the  Gaucheret sq. at Schaerbeek to Belgrade in Serbia, where the eldest child, a poly handicapped 11 years old, has died.

Only a few days after the expulsion of men, women, and children (sometimes very young children) from the hall of the North station in Brussels, the movie ‘from Charybde to Scylla’ which follows their trip back and includes the stories and evidences of those that lived this experience but also some institutional testimonies, confirms that our country-Belgium does not provide protection and does not have a fair policy regarding Roma children»

 

Beginning of May 2012, the Ombudsperson for the Rights of the Child of the French Community in Belgium decided to go to Belgrade to follow the track of a Roma family with five children that has been previously expelled from Brussels. The youngest child of the family was born in Belgium. Sunita, the eldest child, a polyhandicapped 11 years old, died shortly after the return of the family in Serbia, due to lack of care. Beyond the case of Sunita’s family, this documentary reports on multiple persecutions, violences and discriminations that Roma people in Serbia and in other countries of the EU are subject to. The documentary shows the daily reality that surrounds this population that very often tries to escape from a danger to face another one, exactly like jolted marins from Charybde to Scylla (in the greek methodology twese are two terrifying monsters that were the two side guardians of the Strait of Messina).

 




pdf: http://vimeo.com/51290440

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