By Taiwo Feyisipo

While the wranglings, political chit chat, street protest, media outrage, pending court cases meetings etc to seek justice on the 16 July 16 2007 police raids on immigrants at the Grand Café in Amsterdam which was widely condemned as a racist act, the immigration authorities were busy making plans to deport some of the arrested detainnees.

It was gathered from a reliable source that 33 (among whom were arrested at the Grand Café raids even though the names, nature of crime/arrest were not made known) deported detainness were woken up at 3 a.m. on 26 July 2007 from their prison cells and transported straight to the Rotterdam Airport, some refused and were beating up, handcuffed, belted to the waist and whisked away. There was a case of one injected with drugs; some were interrogated on various issues on their personal, political, social etc and a case of one being talked into becoming an informant for the police which he refused.

At the Airport each one of them was marched into the plane accompanied with four armed paramilitary police officers in a millitary formation style, strapped to the sit and sandwiched between the officers which means that more than 120 police agents accompanied the 33 deportees which included a child. It was alledged that the airplane's logo was covered to hide the airline's identity.

Touching down in Nigeria's Muritala Muhammed Airport in Lagos, the plane made its way straight to the Cargo section where they were led out by a Nigerian Immigration officer and received by a Custom officer. Some of them tried to protest their treatment and ordeal in the hands of the Dutch police but were told to find their way out of the premises as quickly as possible, otherwise they would be arrested. The detainees were reported to be traumatised, confused and in a state of shock.

Some questions remain in the manner in which these people were deported: How easy was it for the Dutch immgration to make such act of deportation possible and was it legal? Why drop the deportees at the cargo section of an airport or have Africans now turned to human cargo in this 21st century? What was the role of the Nigerian government and its embassy in the deportation? What was the role of the Dutch judiciary? Where is the so called universal fundamental human rights and dignity when people are inhumanely treated? And finally what is the faith of the deportees in terms of rehabilitation and reintegration back into the society?

The above brings to light some answers in which government policies, high level diplomacy, police criminal acts etc superseed humanity and respect for human dignity.

It was gathered that some of the lawyers involved in the case became so frustrated and powerless that some did not know whom to turn to - the police or the court. The Nigerian embassy indicated that they became powerless when the Dutch authority bypassed them because they refused to co-operate and instead made direct contact with the Nigerian government which sent down some Nigerian immigration officers to get the job done.

Various criminal acts were perpetrated by the Dutch authority in the deportation, some of which included the deportation of of some of the detainees with false names, injecting some with unknown drugs, covering the logo of the airplane, dropping off human beings as cargo, physical abuse, intimidation and maltreatment of victims and child abuse among others.

The police have been empowered with ‘stop and search' to fight crime which has resulted in many undocumented immigrants' beng victims. The law gained a new legal basis in October 2006, with the introduction of what is called performance contract signed by the Dutch police and government authorities, which set a quota for searching and controlling thousands of undocumented migrants with the aim of detaining and deporting up to 12,000 people.

There is deep concern that these raids will set a dangerous precedent where criminal laws are used to hunt immigrants. These raids have started to spread unrest in the migrant and refugee community with fear of arbitrary arrests leading to deportation. It is notable that police are targeting the few safe havens that are left for undocumented migrants, apparently in an attempt to spread fear and to show that no place is a safe. Earlier this year, police raided a church in Rotterdam and a refugee solidarity café in Utrecht. There was also a case of two Africans in Bijlmer Amsterdam that jumped from a storey building out of panic, fear and intimidation from police thereby sustaining severe injuries. Both were hospitalised with serious broken legs, one of them in critical condition. The African community in particular is grip with fear and panic from this increasing discrimination of migrants.

The erosion of the fundamental rights guaranteed in international and national law shall be sustained if the civilised societies do not act now to put a stop to this inhumanity. Concern by some migrant and civil society organisation came together under the umbrella of ‘Campaign Stop Police Raids' to make sure justice prevail. Some of them are: Africa Roots Movements, African Community in the Netherlands, All included, Commission for Filipino Migrant Workers (CFMW), Euro-Mediterraan Centrum Migratie & Ontwikkeling (ENCEMO), Foundation University, Ghana Youth Association, Humanity-Germany, Internationale Socialisten, Jesus Christ Foundation (JCF), Landelijk Migratie Overleg, Nigerian Foundation, Ojala, Philippine Seamen's Assistance Programme (PSAP), RESPECT NL, St.De Fabel van de illegaal, Steungroep Vrouwen Zonder Verblijfsvergunning (SVZV), Stichting LOS, TRUSTED Migrants, Transnational Institute (TNI), XminY Solidariteitsfonds.