We have received numerous reports of (attempted) deportations over the past month. The pace of deportations is not unusual, except that among these attempts we have been made aware of some particularly violent situations.

Failed deportation to Senegal

On Saturday 5 October, an attempt was made to deport two men of Senegalese origin. Both had applied for asylum and regularisation several times in the past, and had been detained for very long periods in detention centres. The deportation on 5 October followed a ‘reserve’ tactic, i.e. only one seat was available on the plane but one person was designated ‘in reserve’ in case the first deportation failed. In both cases, passes were issued by the Senegalese embassy on 2 October, and this was done in a complete lie, because up until 4 October, the embassy told us that nothing had been issued.

Neither of the two expulsions was successful. One of the people we spoke to told us about his experience. This is already his third time in a detention centre, so he has already been subjected to a large number of deportation attempts at the airport. This time, he was ‘ready’, as he put it, and tried to infiltrate the cell with a lighter hidden in his shoe, with the intention of swallowing it on the flight. Desperate acts of this kind, which sometimes even take the form of self-mutilation, are common to prevent deportations. When he arrived at the airport police station, he was searched and the lighter was confiscated. However, he had kept a metal pen spring in his mouth. A few minutes before being taken away, he showed the metal end and pretended to swallow it. Four guards then pounced on him and held his throat. He hid the object in his gums and claimed to have swallowed it. The police officers then threatened him (were they disappointed that they couldn’t enjoy their weekend in Dakar?), and told him that in one or two weeks’ time the deportation would be more violent, and the search more thorough. Taken to hospital, he was X-rayed and tested, but the object in question was not found. He was kept at centre 127bis, and taken back to the Merksplas closed centre on Sunday morning. Since then, he has been traumatised, and can no longer eat or sleep.

We recently learned that this same person was threatened with deportation again on 29 October.

Deportation of a young woman to Ghana

Another planned deportation to Ghana is due to take place on the same day, Saturday 5 October. The young woman whom the Immigration Office had decided to deport had been locked up for 8 months in the Caricole detention centre, then in Bruges. She is 25 years old and was fleeing Ghana to avoid a marriage that did not suit her.

She was placed in solitary confinement the day before, and her belongings were seized. On the day of her deportation on 5 October, she was seen and heard in the airport police station. She was screaming and struggling. With no further news from her, her fellow detainees went on hunger strike to obtain information. We described the situation in a previous press release*.

On Monday 7 October, she was finally able to contact her psychologist to inform her of her expulsion and arrival in Ghana. She was repatriated without her psychologist having been informed.

* https://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/hunger-strike-by-women-at-the-bruges-detention-centre/

Collective flights to Nigeria and Morocco

At the end of September, 30 Nigerian nationals from various detention centres were deported on a collective flight.

Collective flights are flights specifically chartered for deportations, departing from Melsbroek military airport.

We are also aware of group deportations to Morocco. On 5 October, 8 detainees of Moroccan origin, who were being held at Merksplas or 127bis, were deported together on a ‘special flight’, probably a collective flight.

Attempted deportation of a young Palestinian man

On 13 October, an attempt to deport a young Palestinian was aborted. The day before the deportation, he injured his head and had to be examined in hospital. However, as soon as he returned to the centre, security came to collect him from his cell at 4am so that he could be escorted to the plane.

Once at the airport, he resisted being deported and was taken back to detention centre 127bis. Around fifteen people from all over Belgium turned out at the airport on the day of the deportation to protest against this forced expulsion.

The young man is still under threat of being deported again. He is in a very vulnerable psychological state. A new application for international protection is underway.

We have written a full article on this subject**.

** https://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/attempted-deportation-of-a-young-palestinian-man/

Two deportations with police escort on Tuesday 29 October to Dakar and Conakry

A man detained in a detention centre for 6 months, first in Bruges and then in Merksplas, was deported to Guinea on 29 October. He has been living in Belgium for 5 years. A laissez-passer was issued by the Guinean embassy in an unusual format, which led to numerous contacts with the embassy and a demonstration in front of the embassy on Thursday 24 October to ask them questions. The embassy refused to receive those taking part in the demonstration.

An attempt was also made to deport a man from Senegal to Dakar on the same day. This is the third time he has been incarcerated in a detention centre since 2021, and he can no longer count the number of times he has been taken to the airport for attempted deportations.

Other deportations that will not be forgotten

Several people of Eritrean origin have been arrested in recent weeks under the Dublin procedure. Some of them were quickly deported to Poland.

After two rejected asylum applications, a woman detained in Holsbeek was deported on 8 October to Cameroon, her country of origin. The plane’s pilot finally let her off the flight, and she was not deported that day. But she received a new ticket, and is very scared.

On 18 October, an attempt was made to deport a man who had been held at Caricole for almost 6 months to the Ivory Coast. This is already his third attempt at deportation, with a police escort. He is not originally from the Ivory Coast, nor does he know anyone there. He has been deported. We have not heard from him since.

This Saturday, a man was deported for the third time to Nigeria, with a transit stop in Istanbul. He had been living in Belgium for several years and no longer had any contacts in Nigeria. He was eventually deported.

On Sunday 3 November, a man was deported to Cameroon. He had already been in a detention centre for 14 months, and had a court appointment scheduled for the following day (Monday 4 November) with a view to his possible release. However, he was eventually deported.

The constant threats of deportation, the exponential violence and pressure on detainees, are clearly pushing people to the limit. Detainees end up using means of resistance that are dangerous for them, such as swallowing objects or self-mutilation. This just goes to show the extent to which deportation can be a danger to their lives, both from police escorts and from the violence they risk being subjected to in the country of destination.

Solidarity with those in detention!

Stop deportations!