Passengers of Air Maroc to Casablanca stopped deportation

The passengers of Flight 832 AT Royal Air Maroc to Casablanca have jointly managed to stop the deportation of Abdellah on tuesday 28th of May 2013 at Schiphol Airport!

When Abdellah was brought on board, he informed the passengers of his
situation. He said he has no-one in Morocco, does not speak the language well and that his parents and sister were left behind in the Netherlands. He also asked if he could speak the pilot. In the first instance this was stopped by a stewardess of RAM, but then all passengers stood up and told the pilot clearly that the deportation had to stop. Abdellah was then removed from the plane.

Last word has not been said about the 'taking off board': multiple
passengers have seen the escorts using quite some violence and that
Abdullah's mouth was taped, despite the explicit ban on the use of tape.

Abdellah's sister wants to thank everyone who has acted against Abdellah's expulsion. And We? We have a little hope for a better world, again thanks to the passengers of Flight AT 832 who stood up as a block for Abdellah's rights!!

This time it's not KLM, but Royal Air Maroc who collaborates with the
deportation. Shame!
We called on everyone to call Royal Air Maroc. Let them know that you protest against forced evictions! Both the airline and the flight crew can indeed choose NOT to cooperate here. Recently Arke Fly chose not to cooperate with a deportation flight and this gave a good example.

There were many callers and twitterers. 'We will continue, until Abdella is off the passenger list! Do not be fobbed off with a message that the note will be 'passed on'!'
And here the letter used to Royal Air Maroc:

Cher Monsieur,
Aujourd'hui, mr. GUISSI Abdellah sera expulsé de force des Pays-Bas, par vol AT 832 (premierement vol AT 851), horaire du départ 17hrs40 de
Schiphol Airport, Pays-Bas, vers Casablanca, Maroc.

Mr GUISSI est expulsé contre sa volonté. Puisque mr. GUISSI a été sujet des traitements psychiatriques pendant les dernieres années et a besoin de ces traitements due a des problemes psychiatriques, nous prevoyons qu'il est bien probable que mr. GUISSI resistera a son transport. Ceci pourrait provoquer une situation bien incomfortable, voir meme dangereuse pour les passagers comme pour le personnel de vol.

Nous vous prions donc d'urgence de refuser mr. GUISSI au bord de cet
vol, pour la sécurité des passagers, l'equipe au bord et mr GUISSI
lui-meme, si les membres de la Marechaussée Royal decide d'utiliser de
la violence.
Cette sécurité pendant le départ en la durée du vol est la
responsabilité de Royal Air Maroc.
Je vous prie d'agréer, Cher Monsieur, mes salutations distinguées,

What is deportation resistance?

The Deportation Resistance Group resists openly against deportations, by means of direct action. The Dutch government deports rejected asylum seekers on a weekly basis, mostly to countries of war and/or where human rights are being violated. The deported people are in great danger in these countries. The members of the group believe in freedom of movement and fight against the repressive asylum policy that does not give people a fair chance to a new life in the Netherlands, but which is aimed at jailing and deporting as much as people as possible.

The group aims at stopping as much deportations as possible. We do this by setting up and expanding a network of lawyers, activists and refugees, in order to collaborate effectively in resisting deportations.
We provide refugees with information on what they can do to resist their own deportations.

Up untill now, the network of the group has contributed to cancelling a deportation five times.

Another goal of the group is to make the facts public. Every day asylum seekers get thrown out on the streets; every week people are being deported to countries where they risk death. Data on the deportations are not made public. Organisations such as the UNHCR, who repeatedly criticises Dutch asylum policy, also do not have any data. That makes it hard to oppose to deportations. Making the stories public will contribute to a wider spread resistance against the Dutch asylum policy.

The group Deportation and Resistance is a new initiative in the
Netherlands: http://deportatieverzet.nl/
Do you have questions? Do you want to contribute? Do you have a story to tell? Please, don’t hesitate to contact us!
info[at]deportatieverzet.nl