The saga of deportations: stories of resistance in the months of December and January

We summarised the known attempts and deportations for the months of October and November: https://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/the-deportation-saga-stories-of-resistance/

The deportations continue unabatedly in December and January. 

Several detainees with whom we were in contact, that had already suffered up to seven deportation attemps, were finally violently deported. 

They were unable and/ or unwilling to return to their countries of origin for various reasons of their own (family, economy, politics, etc.). They had been held in closed centers, sometimes for more than a year, and had resisted several violents attemps at deportation. 

They held out with determination and courage. 

The Immigration Office did everything in its power to expel those that showed resistance, in order to continue its murderous migration policies. 

A few among others: 

Deported on 05/12/2024 to the DRC (3rd attempt): detained in Bruges for five months. She had lived in Germany since childhood and has her whole life and family there. 

Collective deportation on 17/12/2024 to Morocco: the detainees informed us that the federal police came to pick up people of Maroccan descent from different closed centers to assemble them and detain them in solidary confinment in the closed centre 127bis, in the region of Zaventem. The detainees were handcuffed and put in a police bus bound for the Melsbroek military airbase, close to the centre. Each person was accompanied by three police officers. https://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/new-group-deportation-to-morocco-on-17-december-2024/

Deported on 04/01/2025 to Serbia (4th attempt): after being detained in the closed centre for seven months, he was unexpectedly taken to the airport. He had been living in Belgium for 15 years with his partner and three kinds, they are still fighting for him. He fears that his deportation will lead to him being sent to Russia, where he could be sent to the front in Ukraine. 

Deported on 09/01/2025 to Morocco (7th attempt): detained in a closed centre for nine months. The Immigration Office did everything it could to make sure no one knew about it. He was put in solitary confinment and then dissapeared. it was only a few days later that his fellow detainees learned that he had arrived in Morocco. 

Deported on 11/01/2025 to Senegal (7th attempt): detained in a closed centre for nine months. The attempt on the 11th of January had been prevented by passengers but he was kept at the airport and put on a flight to Istanbul the next day. He told us: “You really have to fight and unfortunately not all detained people are able to do that and they are sometimes deported illegally, it’s harsh!

Deported on 14/01/2025 to Poland: a Palestinian woman detained for four months before being deported under the Dublin procedure. 

Deported on 17/01/2025 to Cameroon (4th attempt): detained in a closed centre for eight months, after being in Belgium since 2016. All of his applications for regularisation and asylum had been refused. 

“I’ve crossed the desert and the Mediterranean twice, I’ve seen dead people: do you think I’m running away for my own pleasure? I was deported a first time in 2016 and came back the same way… for my pleasure of course… what is the pleasure in holding us down like this?”

Deported on 20/01/2025 to Ethiopia: detained in a closed center for fifteen months, his initial goal was to reach England. He is disabled (impaired hearing) and no longer had the courage to resist after being detained for more than a year and suffering multiple deportation attempts. 

#STOPDEPORTATION