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THE WORLD: Complaints against the Belgian airline SNBA

Undocumented: the French complain against the Belgian airline SNBA
THE WORLD the conditions for expulsion of Cameroonians, the passengers had already filed a criminal complaint against the Belgian police. They believe that their applications are mired. They are supported by the Belgian League of Human Rights and the Centre for Equal Opportunities and the Fight against Racism, a parastatal which usually observes a certain reserve.

physical and verbal abuse, racial abuse, intimidation and illegal detention: Serge Fosso, Claude Moussa and Philippe Leonardon claim to have experienced it all April 26, 2008. That day, they are on board the flight SN 351 to Kinshasa via Douala. The first two are black, the third is White said today that "thanked God": the color of his skin he has, he says, earned escape police brutality. "I was placed in a room with honor and dignity," he says. The police have, however, treated "with great kicks and punches" Mr. Fosso and Mr. Moussa told Mr. Leonardon. Mr. Fosso was called a "monkey".

The three men did not know. But two of them - Serge Fosso and Philippe Leonardon - had expressed aloud, before takeoff, a passenger concern held by four police officers and calling for help. Folefack Sontsa, an undocumented migrant, was mastered at the bottom of the unit by the police who tried to stifle her cries. Forced to disembark the passenger recalcitrant policemen then came back, forcing the three passengers - including Claude Moussa, who had remained silent - leaving them as the unit. The company said then that they were causing a riot. She told them later they would be banned from flying for a period of six months, flights from SNBA.

The case becomes even more relief than a few days after this incident, sonst Folefack hanged himself in the detention center where he was confined. He feared being forcibly placed on board another flight. His family has brought civil action against the Belgian authorities. The case has brought to the surface another eviction that ended so tragically in September 1998, Semira Adamu, a young Nigerian woman, had died in an airplane, smothered by a pillow supposed to stop screaming. Lawyers for the three complainants French, My Veronique van der Planck and Alexis Deswaef, emphasize that the method applied to Mr. Sontsa - hands over his mouth and nose - is similar to that used at the time.

disturbing element

Other elements complement an already very dark. Including the fact that a complaint written by Mr. Sontsa after deportation attempt has never been revealed when the detention center owned by the original and forwarded to the Aliens Office, the body which examines applications for asylum and diligent evictions. In this document, found by his attorneys, Cameroonian detailed the brutality he suffered.

Other disturbing element: a video shot by one of three French witnesses on his mobile phone and showing the fate of Mr. Sontsa has been deleted by the police. A computer was nevertheless able to reconstruct a small part.

Finally, after the revelations of the three French, a deputy mayor of Chevilly-Larue (Val-de-Marne), Hermine Rigaud, testified about what had happened to him on another flight SNBA in 2008. Protesting against the violence inflicted on a man being ejected, Ms. Rigaud was brutalized in the presence of her husband who said he was "horrified". This former policeman himself had proceeded in France, deportations of illegal immigrants. Jean-Pierre Stroobants

Article published in the 03/29/2009 edition.