Awarded to all Belgians who, during the World War, were deported as defaulters into Germany and were submitted to forced labour.

This bronze cross was instituted on 27 November 1922 and some 55,000 were awarded. Deportees who, because of their age, should have entered military service were excluded from the award and deportees who died as a result of the deportation, were awarded the cross of Knight of the Order of Leopold II with a gold striped ribbon posthumously.

The cross's obverse and reverse are identical and bear only the war years "1914" and "1918" on the horizontal cross arms. The ribbon is dark red with chevrons in the Belgian national colours (red, yellow and black).