Opening the blackbox of air deportation: The case of Switzerland's “Action Black Autumn”

Abstract

In 1985, in an operation Swiss authorities termed “Action Black Autumn,” a group of (mainly) Zaïrean migrants were deported to Zaïre on Switzerland's first documented deportation charter flight. What later would become a routinised practice was at that point still experimental and encountered significant resistance. Based on primary sources, this article looks at expulsion beyond law and policy by focusing on the development of what we call deportation infrastructure. This move allows for a fuller appreciation of the material systems that mediate coercive mobility and shape struggles. The article especially zooms in on questions of violence, resistance and visibility. By engaging the case from these different angles, we will demonstrate that a perspective of infrastructure offers new insights about deportation as a practice.