practice of expulsions
examples of group expulsionsoccupation of the Martinair headquarters, the 4th of december 1996
Examples of group expulsions
(This list probably is incomplete because it is difficult to obtain official numbers).The discussions on systematic group expulsions is propelled by CDA-Member of Parliament (MP) Koffeman, who after an assignment of four days with the military police proclaims that expulsions should take place with charterflights to avoid unwanted situations on regular flights.
With this he hitches into one of the recommendations from the report of the Commission of den Haak, May 1993, which suggests that soundproofing precautions should be taken in airplanes or one should look into 'the organising of 'own' transport via special charters' (but which does not happen for financial reasons). 'However it is taken into consideration to see, if the developments on the expulsion of refugees proceed according to the consequences of the Treaty of Schengen, these ways - maybe in an international context - could not be taken up.'
1993.
The 'Algemeen Dagblad' on 7th of december 1993 pays attention to the group expulsions of refugees. " On 23th of november a Boeing 767 of Martinair was chartered with which about 25 people from Ghana were taken back to Accra. The hiring of this machine, with 262 chairs, costs between 1 1/2- and 2 thousand guilders. This means about Ÿ 10.000 guilders per asylumseeker. "
Because the procedure of the Schengentreaty is not yet taking place, the 'Benelux' countries and Germany meanwhile decide to agree on further cooperation towards the immigration policies.
Following a Dutch initiative a commission is formed to work, amongst other things, towards a coordinated approach of eviction of immigrants. Zairean immigrants seem to be chosen as the cornerstone of this policy, in any case the Netherlands suddenly re-starts the lawsuits of people from Zaire.
1994
Martinair also played a part with a group expulsion of a large group of transvestites and transsexuals from the Wallen-area in november '94. The chartermachine of Martinair was ready. According to an internal briefing of the Amsterdam police an 'attempt should be made' to fill up the airplane 'in one go', so that the 'whole club could be expelled from the Netherlands in one go.' In the Wallen-area a razzia on large scale of travestites, mainly from Equador, took place. Many of them had fled from Paris earlier, because also there razzia's had taken place. From here and there all over the country also forty Dominican women were taken into custody and added to the group. The airplane stopped in between in Santo Domingo. Probably a lot of Dominican illegal immigrants were taken to Holland by Martinair to be expelled again by the same agency because this is one of the main flighttrajectories of Martinair.
1995
On the 22nd of march 1995 the Dutch language is enriched with the word 'eurocharter'. That day a machine of Martinair flies from Schiphol with 6 German and 25 Dutch Zaireans to Paris, where another 13 Zairean are taken on board. On the 19th of september the Netherlands has saved up enough Zaireans and a machine with 51 Dutch Zaireans leaves in the direction of Kinshasa.
On the 21th of november Martinair flies again, this time with 32 German and Dutch Zaireans direction Paris, to fetch 12 Zairees. Then the machine flies to Zaire.
1996
The 1st of March another group expulsion, 10 from the Netherlands, 42 from France, 13 from Germany. The 10 from the Netherlands are transported by Martinair to Paris, then they fly on with a daughter of Air France. This repeats on the 6th of june.
That group expulsions does not mean a special treatment of Zairean people becomes clear again in june. The administration of Justice announces the beginnings of expulsions to Somalia. First two Somalians are evicted. According to the administration of Justice this expulsion is so succesfull, that immediately it is decided to go for it in a big way. Later it will be revealed that the airplane with which the two were evicted, and the accompanying officials of the administration of Justice have been raided on arrival.
The 15th of june a group of 19 Somalians is evicted on a regular flight of the KLM direction Djibouti. Djibouti refuses to take on the 19. Then one tries to dump the 19 in Dubai, which equally fails. At last the group returns in the Netherlands, where now there is a big upheaval in the press about this game of ping- pong. In the ever occuring stream of information one has to search real good to find the following: 'According to the military police it was meant to expell a bigger group in the first place already on saturday. The 'regular machine' of Martinair was ready, when shortly before departure the pilot received a message that he would not gain permittance for landing in Djibouti. From this group accordingly 19 people and their guardians were 'booked over 'to the regular KLM flight to the Bengalese capital of Dhaka (...)'. (NRC, 19th of june).
On the 28th of august a 767 from Martinair with ten rejected refugees (all from Zaire) leaves for Evreux near Paris. Two machines depart from Evreux that night, a french Airbus to Mali and Senegal, and an unknown 767 to Tunesia and Zaire. Both machines also transport illegal immigrants who shortly before were rounded up at a razzia in Paris from a church where some tens of illegal immigrants had taken refuge.
For that matter,the 767 of Martinair should have contained 35 Zaireans; 25 get wind of their threatening eviction and go into hiding in time.
Finally it can be mentioned that on the 26th of september an eurocharter leaves again from Paris, with amongst others 18 Zairees from the Netherlands on board, who were flown into Paris by Martinair.
