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This article discusses the following questions: Which terms might be helpful to apprehend the resistance of illegalised people against deportation? How useful are concepts like "civil disobedience", "acts of desperation" and "political protest"? And, what does resistance mean in a context of almost total deprivation of possibilities and rights? In order to address these questions, the article uses the case of a burning prison cell in Vienna, which was used to detain people pending deportation. Through interviews with one of the detainees, as well as through observation protocols from the trail against the six inmates that tried to prevent their deportation through setting their prison cell on fire, the article discusses the cynical reification of Non-European "others" as a colonial continuity and as performative of an illegalised workforce. Against reification and the denial of rights, the article suggests "endorsing listening" as a practice for both research and jurisdiction. Resistance is often conceptually linked with notions of collectivity and the public sphere. This article shows that marginalised forms of resistance often occur outside of a collectively and/or the public sphere, while resistance that takes place amid reification and the deprivation of rights breaks the dichotomy between desperation and political protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]