VOL SPÉCIAL (2011)

Asylum law and migration control

Switzerland. Direction: Fernand Melgar. Production: Fernand Melgar / Climage. Photography: Denis Jutzeler. Music: Aziza Brahim. Edition: Karine Sudan. Running time: 103 min

LANGUAGE: French / SUBTITLES: Spanish, English

Following La forteresse (2008), where he portrayed the living conditions of recently arrived asylum seekers in Switzerland, here Fernand Melgar looks at the end of the road for many immigrants. Awaiting their final expulsion from the country, several men are still held at the Frambois administration detention centre. Their asylum claims have been rejected and they are to be sent home; many of them after having spent several years in the country, working, paying their taxes and forming families. Under 1994 legislation, they can be detained at the centre for up to two years. During this time they wait in the prison-residence for their definitive expulsion. Tension rises within the walls. Complex relationships of friendship, hatred, respect, sometimes humiliation, arise between the inmates and their guards. Those who refuse to leave the country are handcuffed and forced onto a “special flight”.

Talk: Maricela Daniel (Spanish representative of UNHCR), Patricia Bárcena (director of CEAR Basque Country)