France: Air France KLM employees demand an end to deportations
01 July 2007
On 5 July, representatives of Air France's central trade union committee (
comité d'entreprise, CCE) passed a motion demanding that Air France KLM Group shareholders "stop the use of aircraft of the Group Air France KLM for the deportation of foreigners". Representatives of the CFDT, CGT, FO and CGC trade unions specify in the motion, which was passed a few days before the shareholders meeting of 12 July in Paris, that deportations damage the image of the company and endanger flight safety.
Philippe Decrulle, CFDT representative in the CCE, said that through the motion employees want to warn shareholders that the reputation Air France is gaining especially, in Africa, is bad for business: "It is increasingly evident that the employees are fed up [with deportations]", he said. "[Shareholders] have to be aware that the deportations can damage the image of the Air France brand. They will most probably lose money. We are defending our means of work. We believe the deportations should be stopped and a memorandum should be passed immediately", Decrulle said.
The move comes after a series of violent deportations on Air France flights. In May this year, a flight from Paris to Bamako (Mali) was cancelled when passengers intervened in a deportation. It was one of many incidents in the past few years where forced deportations have upset staff and passengers who helped the deportee to resist. Film maker Laurent Cantet was on board the aircraft with his film crew when the deportation of a 50?year?old Malian citizen escalated. Cantet said that he initially thought a fight had broken out between passengers, until two plainclothes police officers identified themselves after starting to restrain the victim by sitting on him. One officer hit him in the stomach, the other appeared to strangle him as his screams subsided and he lost consciousness. Passengers, many of whom were black, got very upset and one began filming the scene with his mobile phone, upon which an officer threatened to arrest him.
Police then took the deportee off the plane, leaving a stewardess and several passengers in tears. Police then tried to locate the film of the incident, accusing another passenger, Michel Dubois, of initiating the conflict. In an extraordinary abuse of police powers Dubois was actually arrested and, to their credit, passengers began to protest and refused to obey orders to sit down. The police officers then attempted to strike a deal, saying that they would allow Dubois on board again if the passengers would allow the deportation to go ahead. The flight was eventually cancelled by the pilot. The 50?year old Malian citizen was charged and convicted of refusing to cooperate with his deportation and resisting police officers. Dubois was released and the group "Education without borders", which defends undocumented parents of school children, announced the formation of a solidarity committee supporting victims of criminalisation.
The French newspaper
Libération (11.7.07) asked how the motion came about, the CFDT representative, Philippe Decrulle revealed that the intensification of deportations and restrictive immigration policy under the then interior minster, Nicolas Sarkozy, had led to daily deportations on Air France KLM flights to Bamako. This fact, together with ongoing campaigns by anti?deportation groups and the "Education without Borders" network, had mobilised passengers and the workforce to resist the violent and abusive deportations:
There is a real, increasing consciousness amongst passengers who can no longer endure flying in a sort of deportation cell with shackled deportees, who are sometimes drugged like zombies. The personnel no longer accept working in a climate of violence and tension. And the Education without Borders network which has been mobilising against deputations for some years now, has contributed a lot to raising consciousness.
When asked about the staff's relationship to law enfor