WOID XVIII-25. Guantanamo on the Seine
Réseau Educateurs sans Frontières, a French NGO that protects the rights of immigrants, claims that on January 9 an immigrant being deported from the United States to the Republic of the Congo was brutally beaten by American officers after refusing to board an Air France flight at Roissy-CDG, the main airport of Paris. One officer is said to have repeatedly smashed the immigrant’s face into the floor of the carrier, causing him to vomit and splattering blood on the walls. This being France, the ground crew refused to clean up the mess, claiming it wasn’t in their contract to mop up after beatings.
Réseau Educateurs sans Frontières has asked Air France to answer the following:
1.) Are US federal authorities empowered to carry out deportations on Air France aircraft? If so, what is the agreement?
2.) Are US authorities empowered to assault Air France passengers, especially passengers who are being restrained?
3.) As these events occurred on French soil and on board a French aircraft, can legal proceedings against the assailants be considered, and should they be considered?
Perhaps a few such questions might be asked from this side of the pond as well.
[Reprinted from WOID: a journal of visual language]