New group deportation to Morocco on 17 December 2024

[TW: self-harm, police violence]

This Tuesday 17 December, around ten people of Moroccan origin were deported on a ‘special flight’, chartered specifically for the deportation. This is the third flight of this type that has been arranged to Morocco since October 2024¹, at least as far as we know.

The detainees tell us that the federal police came to collect people of Moroccan origin from several different detention centres, rounded them up and held them in solitary confinement at detention centre 127bis, in the Zaventem area. The detainees were handcuffed, tied up in shackles and put on a bus bound for the Melsbroek military airbase, close to the centre. Each person was accompanied by three police officers.

According to the testimonies gathered, the police intervention was extremely violent, especially towards three detainees who did not accept this deportation and showed greater resistance. One of them managed to escape deportation by swallowing razor blades. He was taken to hospital, before being violently taken back to the detention centre. One of the police officers reportedly told him: ‘Do you want to die? You’re going to die!

Deportations and the fear of deportation are a daily occurrence for people held in detention centres. Despite the presence of witnesses on these ‘regular’ flights, individual deportations on commercial flights already involve a great deal of police violence (for an example, see our December 2023²). Collective deportations on special flights take place in complete silence from the Melsbroek military base, with a heavy police presence. As the testimonies we have heard attest, these ‘special’ deportations allow for extreme police violence with very little possibility of resistance.

#NoBorders

#StopDeportations