Muana was a nurse at the Mama Yemo hospital in Kinshasa. On 9 November 1994, she arrived in Paris on a regular Air France flight. Notwithstanding what National Association for the Defense of Foreigners at the Borders (ANAFE) said was a perfectly valid entry visa, the police considered Muana suspicious and led her to a waiting area. After various unsuccessful attempts, she managed to file her application for asylum with the French border police (Police de l'air et des frontieres, or PAF) on 11 November. ANAFE said Muana explained in great detail that her parents were long standing anti-regime militants in Zaire and she had followed in their footsteps.
On 16 November, according to ANAFE, the Direction des libertes publiques et des affaires judiciaires (DLPAJ) of the French Interior Ministry ruled that her asylum request was "manifestly unfounded" since "the applicant filed her application two days after her arrival, prompted to do so by a fellow Zairian in the waiting zone."
On 21 November, her wrists and ankles bound and escorted by three policemen, Muana was invited to board a plane to Kinshasa. She refused. According to ANAFE, a police officer slapped her across the face. Amid protests from crew and passengers, the police escort disembarked Muana and other deportees and took them back to the airport transit zone. A two-day truce followed. Then, on 23 November, Muana was expelled to Cameroon - a country she had not, in fact, transited en route to France - although her expulsion ruling stated clearly that she was to be taken back to Zaire. Since her expulsion, there has been no further news from Muana, ANAFE says.
Wondered one ANAFE official, "Did the Interior Ministry choose to send Muana to Cameroon rather than to Zaire, because there is only one weekly flight to her country - and another refusal to board the plane would have entailed her being set free, given that the 20-day legal deadline would have lapsed? Could the administration be sure that she would be well-received in Cameroon?"
By: Francis Kpatinde
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