Deportation at any price

 Mrs S., of Togolese origin, was deported by the Foreigners Office on October 6th. It was the third deportation attempt on her and it was done in secret to avoid any resistance or mobilisation.

She was isolated Saturday 5th of October in the evening around 9.30 p.m. in the closed centre of Bruges where she was had been staying for several months. Her phone was taken away from her at 10:00 p.m. but she managed – that was close! – to warn contacts. She was supposed to be on flight SN Airlines to Abidjan at 2.35 p.m and then to Lomé.

We had not launched any call because this flight had been cancelled on the website of Brussels Airport, which we naively saw as good news for S. However, the Office found another solution. She was put on the Air Maroc Flight to Casablanca at 1.45 p.m with a correspondence to Lomé!

The interview of this woman about her violent second deportation attempt has been broadcasted on Semira Adamu’s commemoration day. http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/youre-going-to-break-her-neck-fr/

A complaint was lodged after the blows the got during the second deportation attempt, which should have suspended the deportation while the request was being dealt with, but the Office of Shame doesn’t care and deported her secretly.

A female member of CEACPE had been arrested at the airport for two hours during that deportation attempt.

With her co-detainees, she had orgainsed a commemoration day for Semira in the Closed centre of Bruges http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/commemoration-of-semira-in-the-closed-centre-in-brugge-fr/

The story of S. is singular. She had married a Belgian man in Togo for whom she abandoned everything. She came to Belgium to live with him three years ago. He immediately rejected her, and different procedures led to divorce. It is how S lost her residence rigth and introduced a reguralisation request that was rejected. She was fearing her deportation to Togo because she would go back there as a repudiated woman, which is not socially accepted there, especially in the family middle she comes from. S. is victim of discriminatory procedures of sexist character in Belgium. She will also be in Togo.

She sent us a text message from Casablanca: ‘I am wounded but OK. I will have fought till the end, it’s true. 1000 thank you’s. Thank you for your commitment! Your fight is extremely noble’.