One of the most striking things that Bikovtsova has seen in Brussels is that the people are extremely tolerant.

“People live a quiet peaceful life and are not used to shocks such as the terror attack that occurred in Brussels.”

Before the attacks police were already on high alert and were rounding up illegal immigrants and those people who had expired visas. This was because Paris had been rocked by brutal terror attacks just a month earlier.

But despite the increased police presence  in Brussels, the terror attacks were not stopped and the prime reason for that is that the attackers weren’t immigrants, but were born and raised in Brussels.
Bikovtsova believes that this tolerance will be the downfall of Brussels.

She further stressed that even now she hasn’t heard from any of the locals that it is necessary to tighten immigration policy and to carefully inspect the Arab population residing in Brussels.

But there is a certain tension in the city. When Arab looking people walk into the metro there is a sense of forbidding that sweeps the people. But the migrants feel this sense of fear as much as the local people do.

Bikovtsova further told that there is very large Arab population in Belgium. Arab women are very polite; they always give their seat to elderly or children in public transport. But the Arab men especially teenagers, are rowdy and never speak French, only their own language.

Regarding Russians living in Brussels, Bikovstova said that there is no prejudice against Russian living here, and they are very well treated, Sputnik reported.

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