BRUSSELS — Fewer illegal immigrants and rejected asylum seekers were deported last year as just two out of three expulsion attempts succeeded, the supervisory police committee has revealed.
 
The committee (known as Comité-P) said the reduced number of deportations was due to the jailing at the end of 2003 of the state police officers after Nigerian asylum seeker Sémira Adamu choked to death during her deportation in 1998.

When the ruling was handed down, security officers at Zaventem Airport refused during December 2003 and June 2004 to use force during expulsions.

As soon as an asylum seeker started protesting against their deportation while on board the plane the officers ended the forced expulsion, newspaper ‘De Standaard’ reported on Wednesday.

There were on average 30 attempted expulsions or refused entries to Belgian territory every day last year, amounting to 11,047 incidents. There were 34 incidents per day in 2003, amounting to 12,631 deportations.
 
However, just two out of every three (about 66 percent) attempts in 2004 succeeded, compared with an average of three out of four (75 percent) in previous years.

At the start of 2004, the government-appointed Vermeersch Commission advised that force can be used in certain cases.

And despite the fact the Comité-P regretted it had not been consulted by the commission, the number of successful deportations has risen to four out of five (80 percent) since January 2005.

Nigerian Adamu died after a state officer pressed a cushion against her face when she protested against her expulsion in 1998.

The four officers accompanying her were sentenced to suspended jail terms ranging from one year to 14 months despite the fact Brussels Court ruled the woman’s death was an accident.

[Copyright Expatica News 2005]

Subject: Belgian news