The plane landed on the Tarmac of Marignane Airport (Bouches-du-Rhône). Thirty plainclothes police officers planted in front. Ready to take five men, Turks and Afghans, escorted one by one, handcuffed, head pressed into the shoulders. When getting on the plane, one of them collapses on the asphalt. Civil servants are used to it. Machinely, they position him on the side and pass two straps to him, one around the ankles, the other around the knees. Here he is tied up and carried horizontally in the cabin. In a pair of hours, he will land in Zagreb. His wrong? Having asked asylum in France, while, according to the imprints he left there, he entered the European Union (EU) by Croatia. The European regulation of Dublin stipulates that the State responsible for examining an asylum application is that of entry into Europe.
A few hours earlier, another of the five escorted passengers, of Afghan nationality, lost consciousness and collapsed in the parking lot of an annex to the Bouches-du-Rhône prefecture, in Marseille. The gave eyes, the body stretched like an arc. “Go breathe, it will be fine”tried a police officer (all civil servants requested anonymity). “It’s the fear of departure”said another, in an empathetic tone.
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