A Moroccan student was expelled from Romania after 11 days in a Belgian detention center, despite her Schengen visa

Oim Ziti, a fourth-year dental student in Iasi, Romania, planned to celebrate the end of the year with her uncle and brother, who live in Brussels and Lille, respectively, due to the closure of Morocco’s borders. But his project took a bad turn.

Upon her arrival at Charleroi-Gosli airport on 13 December, the Moroccan student was arrested, before being expelled from Romania 11 days later, with all her belongings, including her phone, confiscated at Steinokkarziel’s Le Caricole. The center was closed, Belgian newspaper Le Soir reported on Sunday, quoting the Belaga Agency.

“I intended to spend the end of the year in Morocco. But because of the coronavirus my country has decided to close its borders. So I decided to stay with my uncle in Brussels in Belgium for a few days. It was he who was supposed to take me to Lille where my twin brother lives. We intended to spend Christmas and New Year together,” Oim Ziti told RTBF on the Friday before his eviction.

“I went to customs (in Charleroi) where I gave my Moroccan passport, my Romanian residence permit and my Schengen tourist visa issued by the French authorities. I only had 10 euros in cash, but I gave it (the agent) to my French bank. Showed the card and offered to accompany me to a pick-up point to prove that I could support myself”, she said.

The student claimed to have bail in the persona of her uncle, but to no avail. Customs then sent a report to the Office des étrangers, which decided to expel the student from Belgian territory and revoke his tourist visa, underlines the newspaper Le Soire.

Office des étrangers (OE) spokesman Dominique Arnold told RTBF that “the student does not meet the conditions to be able to enter Belgium3” and “has a tourist visa issued by France”. “The purpose of his stay must be in France. However, he announced that he intended to stay for 22 days in Belgium. And for that, he did not have valid support”, says the Belgian official.

Irrational arguments to justify expulsion. Moroccan young student had visa Schengen in good standing. She was pursuing her medical studies in Romania, which joined the European Union on January 1, 2007, but has not yet joined the Schengen Area.

Membership to this free movement zone requires both a unanimous vote of the member states and the fulfillment of technical conditions. But does this justify the arrest, 11 days of imprisonment and the expulsion of Ouim Zieti by the Belgian authorities?

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