AUDIO Testimony of Ms. Touria about her violent eviction: “Seven police officers to illegally evict me” (FR)
AUDIO of Touria’s request for media coverage: “I want media” (FR)
Transcription in Engl below
Contextualisation of Ms. Touria’s situation
Ms. Touria has been living in Belgium for 17 years.
Following the submission of her marriage application to the municipality, she was arrested and taken to a detention centre in January 2023, because the municipality considered this application as a “paper wedding”, i.e. she was only seeking an opportunity to benefit from the residency through her marriage.
Touria suffers from mental health problems and had a very hard time with her imprisonment in the closed centres of Holsbeek and Bruges for five months. External doctors have visited her and attested to this state of health.
Her lawyer had lodged an appeal before the indictment section of the Court of appeal and a request for the cancellation of her expulsion on 11 May 2023 to Casablanca, scheduled by the Immigration Office.
On May 11, 2023, the indictment section of the Court of appeal decided that Ms. Touria should be released. Nevertheless, she was illegally deported the same day.
Transcript of testimony 1
Good evening, this is Ms. Touria X. I am currently on my way to Tangier. I received a positive response for freedom from the centre. Now I am in Morocco. I did not understand anything. I asked the policemen: “Show me the order. I don’t have the order yet that they want to transfer me to Morocco. He said: “No, we have the order, it’s negative”. He told me like that. I say: “Show me”. He says: “No”. There are almost 7 policemen with me. Just imagine! 7 policemen.
He said: “You go back nicely”. I said, “No!” I started shouting. I said, “I haven’t taken my medicine, I’m not well.” He called the doctor at the airport. He just came and gave me a little pill, he said, “Put it on the bottom of your tongue, like this. And you calm down.” That’s all. I showed him the certificate from the centre. He took a picture, like this. And that’s it. When I get on the plane, there are three policemen at the door, and two sitting, one on the right, and one… I don’t know, I’m like a criminal. They are going to travel with a criminal.
Transcript of testimony 2
Now I would like to talk with journalists. I want to talk with journalists about my situation. 5 months in the closed centre. I dream that one day I will have my freedom. They freed me, they transferred me to Morocco. Freedom is: transfer to Morocco. It’s not there.
