MONITORING ACTIVITIES 67 Klavs Kinnerup Hede Director of International Relations One early morning in October, six police constables in plain clothes arrived at ‘Center Avnstrup’, an asylum centre situated in central Zealand, in order to detain an Afghan family. In the first instance, the task was to move the family a little further north to ‘Ellebæk’, the Prison and Probation Service institution for detained asylum seekers. But after that, the family, who consisted of a father, mother and a 15-year-old son, were to be forcibly deported to Afghanistan. At 6:10 am, a police constable knocked quietly on the door to the family’s room. Shortly after, the father – who had obviously been asleep – opened the door. Two police constables asked for permission to enter the room. They explained that it had been decided to detain and transfer the family to ‘Ellebæk’ since they were very soon to be deported to Afghanistan. At this point, the atmosphere was calm. The father and son packed without protest, whereas the mother protested vociferously. She sat on a blanket on the floor where she had been praying when the police constables entered the room. A woman police constable tried to calm her down, but approximately 20 minutes later, the mother began to knock her head hard against the floor. The police constables held the mother in a firm grip, and when she refused to get up, they carried her downstairs to the car. The mother continued to scream in the car, and the woman police constable held her in a firm grip several times in order to prevent her from knocking her head against the car window. The other police constables arrived 30 minutes later with the father and the son. The family’s belongings were now packed in two boxes and two big white sacks. The family left ‘Center Avnstrup’ together with the police constables shortly after 7 am.