29/05/2012 Interview of a Tunisian man who got deported to Tunisia. His companion and two of his children went to Tunisia to support him.
Listen (FR) :
I have four children who have the Belgian nationality. I have been living in Belgium for fifteen years. The four children carry my name. Two of them are placed in care but they often come to visit us, and the other two are from my companion and they live with us. They depend on her , like me while I wait for the regularisation of my stay.
They came and arrested me. I talked with my lawer who said that I could refuse the first plane.
They were three when they came, first to transfer me to Vottem. I was on hunger strike and they told me I needed to go to the hospital because I had problems with my kidneys. They brought me back to Merksplas and I slept there. In the morning, the three came and took me. I was on the plane. I wanted to speak to the pilot.
I’ll send you pictures of me to show you what my face looked like when I arrived in Tunisia. They ruined my face. They would not let me speak. I’ve got asthma, I almost died.
I said “listen Sir, let me, I won’t speak”, and he answered “crève, sale chien!” (Go to hell!). We had a stop in Italie and then inTunisia. Now I’m here, I don’t even know why, what am I to do? I’ll go mad without my children who stayed there. My companion came with my two daughters, but for my older children, how am I going to do?
The lawyer doesn’t answer the phone when I call him.
The people in Vottem told me that we were going to the hospital and once there they put me in a cell and they told me that I would be on a plane the next morning at 3 a.m.
I said that I would refuse anyway. I have children etc. Before they took me to Tunisia my lawyer had told me that it would be impossible for them to put me on the plane because I have 4 kids, the embassy would not let te happen. He also said that even if they succeeded we would go to court etc.
I should have gone to court yesterday or the day before for an immediate release but I didn’t. I didn’t get it. I am going nuts here in Tunisia. I have a boy of 8 years old and another one of 6 years old, I am really strongly attached to my kids. From one day to the other I find myself here, like a dog they brought me here with flip-flops only…
He had leather gloves, you know, like workers, he was holding my mouth, he ruined my face with them, I look like if I had my face burnt now. They put a kind of net over me, they tied it in the front and in the back like they tie animals weighing 500 kg.The tree of them sat on me, I’ve got asthma, I almost died!
There were people on the plane. They didn’t let me shout. The people went on the plane, they put me at the back. There were empty seats at the back. They sat down next to me, one to the right, one to the left and one in front. When I started talking they jumped on me, they didn’t let me move. My body hurts, I’ve got bruises everywhere.
I told them I couldn’t breathe, I asked them to let me speak, I was doing nothing wrong, I was tied anyway, and I had the right to refuse this flight, it was the first one!
I got imprisoned several times, but never inside a plane. Each time we made appeals and submitted a regularisation file. At last they said : So, Sir you have no ties to the Belgian territory.”But what to do?” Having four kids in Belgium was not enough, do I have to buy a dog to have ties on the Belgian territory?
Concerning another document one day, they sent it back to me and said Sorry Sir there was a mistake in your file, soon you’ll get your document. But then they came to pick me up at home and asked me to go with them to the police station for half an hour… since then I’ve been in Tunisia.
I’ve been in Tunisa for a week now…
