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poster
exhibition
june 2000
International Alliances Against Airlines
The campaign »Deportation Class - Stop the business with deportations«
is based on the experiences with anti-racist campaigns in other European
countries against deportations with airlines.
Althought goverments of the EU ar working together closely in deportations,
protest movements against the Fortress Europe do know only little of each other.
The campaign against the Lufthansa
wants to close this gap and acts internationally from the beginning.
Therefore the network »no one is illegal« is running the website
www.deportation-alliance.com together with the »Autonoom
Centrum« in Amsterdam.
Specific actions against the business with deportation have
irritated the European airlines.
Dezember 4th 1996, Schiphol airport, Amsterdam: Over roofs and
firesteps a small group of Dutch activists reaches the roof of the
central office building of the airline Martin
Air. While a huge banner is lowered from above, a larger group
enters the main entrance. The occupyers
wanted to inform the staff about the deportation business of "their company" with
leaflets and posters, because Martin Air was mainly responsible for
Sammelabschiebungen(deportation of groups of refugees from different European countries),
e.g. to Zaire. In so called Eurocharters not only refugees
from the Netherlands but also from France and Germany were flown out together .
The security staff of Martin Air stopped the planned information, but Mr. Martin
himself was so impressed that he offered a talk. When a delegation of
the »Autonoom Centrum« threatened with a campaign in case his airline would
continue with deportations, Mr. Martin surprisingly gave in.
He would not announce it publically,
but Martin Air would stop deportations. Since that there have been no
'Sammelabschiebungen' from the Netherlands. In the meantime Dutch activists
have started their campaign against KLM, the most important Dutch airline for
deportations.
There have also been protests against airlines in France and Belgium.
In March 1999 several hundred people occupied the centre of Air France in Paris.
The actions in France were also directed against Air
Afrique, Lufthansa and the Belgan airline Sabena. After the dead of the
Nigerian woman Semira Adamu the pilots of Sabena
declared that they were not going to accept deportees on their planes anymore.
Eleven police officers had forced Semira Adamu violently on a airplane to
Togo and suffocated her death with a pillow.
Threats of boycotts induced Sabena to make sure before every flight that all
passengers agreed with their flight.