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poster
exhibition
june 2000
Deportation Class
In May 1999, Sudanese refugee Mohamed Aamir Ageeb died on board
Lufthansa flight LH-558 going to Cairo. He was to be deported to
Sudan, accompanied by three officers of the Bundesgrenzschutz, the
national police force. The officers had fettered the 30-year-old, put
a motorcyclist helmet on his head and pressed him onto the seat,
suffocating him to death.
Ageeb was not the first victim of this inhuman deportation practice
on board a Lufthansa airplane. In 1994, 30-year-old Nigerian Kola
Bankole, who had been given a tranquilizing injection, suffocated
with a sock gag in his mouth before the plane even departed from
Rhein-Main airport. Authorities and air companies quickly went back
to everyday business after Aamir Ageeb's death by suffocation last
year.
Although these kinds of incidents usually pass without comment from
airlines and government, this death set off a campaign titled no one
is illegal against deportations by Lufthansa. With this campaign we
protest against European deportation practice and criticize the role
of air companies. Since Lufthansa has been criticized in public,
representatives of the company have claimed that the airline objects
in principle to deportations against the will of the individuals
concerned and has not transported any since June 1999. Reality looks
different:
On March 13th 2000, there was an incident on board
Lufthansa flight LH 4115 travelling from Paris to Berlin. Two French
civilian police officers maltreated an African passenger who offered
resistance against his deportation, hitting him violently. Although
he was screaming and other passengers were protesting loudly, there
was no initial reaction from the crew. Only when Leipzig University
Professor Klaus Gerd Giesen threatened the captain with legal
prosecution was the deportation stopped.
With the campaign and by
means of manifold actions and projects, 'no one is illegal' aims at
reaching a vast audience and drawing attention to the role of
Lufthansa in these unethical deportations. This is not a boycotting
campaign. Rather, we rather invite flight passengers and the air
crew to show courage and intervene in case of deportations. We want
to achieve a commitment from Lufthansa that they will give up this
business in theory and in practice.
In search of a poster to serve as
identification for the campaign as well as being used during actions
and events throughout the country, artists were invited to contribute
to a poster competition. Almost 30 drafts were sent. These posters by
artists from different cities and of graphically very diverse designs
will be shown in this exposition.