The Dutch gouvernment plans to pass a bill to allow a massive deportation of 26.000 asylum seekers, while only a tiny number of asylum seekers received a permit to stay in the Netherlands. Ever since this proposal, a wave of protest actions flooded the country and international organisations like Human Rights Watch condemn the policy as it would violate international standards and create dangerous situations for refugees.
In the series of actions that started at the end of Januari, a protest was planned at the detention centre of Zestienhoven near Rotterdam on Sunday the 21st of March. The demonstration was announced in due form and security issues were discussed with the local authorities. In spite of that, the local authorities illegally decided to forbid all protests, not only around Zestienhoven but in the whole city of Rotterdam.
A major police blockade was set up around the city. Two busses were stopped, all passengers were checked for id and illegaly photographed. Four people were arrested. All cars on their way to Zestienhoven were stopped, the people in the cars were questionned and photographed. They had to provide "a really good reason" to be let through. Public transport was stopped, all passengers were taken of those busses to be indentified and photographed as well. Protestors tried to walk back to the trainstation in a demonstration, but they were forbidden and forced back on a bus back to the city. Three police cars followed the bus all the way back to the trainstation that was swarming with cops too. Only a small alternative protest in front of the Bijlmer prison, which has a deportation section, in Amsterdam was allowed.
