Paris: anti-deportation protests at Roissy airport

Sarkozy in Mali, Anti-Deportations in Roissy

10.Feb.03 - This Sunday, February 9, there were about 50 activists at the Roissy arirport outside Paris, who had gathered to sensitize the ersonnel and the passengers, notably those on flights suspected of "hosting" deportees, and asking them to show their solidarity with undocumented migrants by refusing to sit down in the airplane until the deportees are taken off of the plane. After having distributed information among the passengers at several check-in counters, we demonstrated with chants and slogans for an hour in the waiting area, with banners reading, "Stop Deportation" and "No to Expulsions". Stickers denouncing Air France's responsability in the last two deaths that have taken place in the course of deportations were posted and the following flyer was passed out to all.

The boys in blue had been noticeably present since our arrival at the Roissy subway stop. They followed us through all our comings and goings but did not try any aggressive intervention. Who can predict their logic? The airport staff were not aware of the two recent deaths and showed their interest; others discreetly gave us information.

P.S.: today, there were 50 of us, but the job of informing and mobilizing airport passengers can be done more discreetly with only a few; each time, it is a grain of sand that can help to make the gears of deportation grind to a halt, while truly changing the lives of those deportees who can be allowed off the plane.

Here is the text of the flyer distributed:

With Air France you may go to heaven before you've even left the ground. In fifteen days, two undocumented migrants were killed in Roissy by the Border Police. Ricardo Barrientos, a 52-year-old Argentine, and Mariam Getu Hagos, a 24-year-old Somali, were killed in the course of deportation. They both died in the airplane after Border Police bent their bodies double and pressed on their shoulderblades to prevent them from screaming and alerting the passengers. Minister of the Innterior Sarkozy called these deaths "accidents" on the part of the police.

In Europe, men and women are regularly killed during their deportations, The frequency of police brutality in the streets, in police stations, in immigrant detention centers, in airports, etc. shows that these deaths can not be simply accidental; they are the result of a policy of making migrants' lives and livelihoods precarious and exploitation of foreigners, which is led by the Left and Right alike.

These two undocumented migrants died in the airplanes belonging to Air France, which has collaborated and actively participated in the politics of deportation for many years.

Several flight-staff unions have denounced these practices and the violence that they bring about.

We call for a concrete mobilization against all deportations.

Collectif Anti Expulsions d'Ile de France,
21 ter rue Voltaire 75011
Paris tel/fax : 01 53 79 12 21
e-mail : caeparis@free.fr