Updated 30 June 2023: Twitter: NUJ @NUJofficial Thank you @grahamemorris for writing to the Immigration Minister to seek an urgent intervention in journalist Ghazi Gareeb Zorab’s case. There are credible threats to Ghazi’s safety if he is returned to Iraq.
Updated June 29 2023: Middle East Eye: UK: Iraqi Kurdish journalist facing deportation fears being killed if sent home
An Iraqi Kurdish journalist has said he fears being killed in his home country if he is deported from the UK on Saturday as planned.
On Monday, Ghazi Ghareeb Zorab went to the Dallas Court Reporting Centre in Salford, Manchester, where he was making a regular visit as is required of him while his asylum claim is processed.
He was then detained and told he would be deported to Jordan on 1 July, and from there onto neighbouring Iraq.
Zorab spoke to Middle East Eye on a Nokia phone from Brook House immigration removal centre in London, after his smartphone was taken off him by security officials, and said he was in a “terrible situation”, terrified of being returned to northern Iraq.
“I would be persecuted, I would be killed, I would be imprisoned. Killing, kidnapping, any kind of punishment,” he said.
Read more: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iraq-uk-kurdish-journalist-facing-deportation-fears-killed
RAPAR: Kurdish journalist facing deportation from UK fears being killed if removed
Removal set July 1st. Fresh claim submitted Tues – no acknowledgement of receipt from HO. @Afzal4Gorton made reps to @RobertJenrick
Updated 13 June 2023: Labour Hub: Breaking: Brook House 3 acquitted
Stop Deportations report on the outcome of a crucial trial where the defendants could have faced long prison sentences for the direct action they took to prevent Home Office deportations.
Read more: https://labourhub.org.uk/2023/06/13/breaking-brook-house-3-acquitted/
Updated 14 February 2023: City of Sanctuary UK: on Twitter
Updated 1 February 2023: RAPAR: Keep Kouame Safe:
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Please support RAPAR’s campaign for our friend and member Kouame, a political activist from Ivory Coast who faces grave danger if he is forcibly removed to there. Kouame was recently detained at a Home Office Reporting Centre in Greater Manchester. He was taken to Dungavel House, Scotland, and he is now back in Manchester, in detention. We understand that he will be moved to Colnbroook, London, on Tues. the 31st before his removal flight to Ivory Coast with Royal Air Maroc, which is booked from London Heathrow to Ivory Coast, via Casablanca, on Friday 3rd February at 5.10pm British time.
To read his story, visit the ‘Keep Kouame Safe’ page on the RAPAR website.
Kouame’s forcible removal is booked on Royal Air Maroc flight AT801, London Heathrow to Casablanca at 5.10pm British time on Friday 3rd February, and then from Casablanca, Flight AT533, to Abidjan.
[Update 16 February 2023: Kouame is now out of detention and back home in Manchester!
RAPAR would like to thank you…
Our friend Kouame is now back home with us in Manchester, having had his removal directions cancelled, and being released from detention!
We would like to say a huge thank you to all of you who took action. Kouame, RAPAR, and all of his friends, are incredibly grateful. The response to his campaign was far bigger than we ever imagined, and we have been so happy to see the energy, time and work everyone put in to Keep Kouame Safe.
Thank You.]
Updated 3 November 2022: Open Democracy: Priti Patel’s deportations deal with Zimbabwe is putting lives at risk
Successive hard-right home secretaries have created a Home Office that prioritises immigration figures over human rights
In the four years since she arrived in the UK, 56-year-old Josephine Sipiwe Jenje-Mudimbu’s life has shifted from one of hope to one of daily, grinding fear.
Josy, as she’s better known, is an asylum seeker from Zimbabwe, who’s currently staying with a friend and fellow Quaker in Norton, Stockton-on Tees. Six weeks ago, Josy was left needing crutches after being injured when six enforcement officers tried to collect her for deportation.
Though Josy’s deportation was prevented by a last-minute legal appeal, she’s been traumatised by the experience, and fears officers could come for her again at any time.
Given Zimbabwe’s appalling human rights record, an agreement made last year to deport people like Josy to the country was among the Home Office’s most controversial policies – until, at least, former home secretary Priti Patel’s deal to offshore asylum seekers to Rwanda took centre-stage.
Last month, Patel’s incumbent successor, Suella Braverman, said it was her “dream” to see Patel’s Rwanda plan actualised, despite opposition from human rights groups.
“The Rwanda deportation plan is fundamentally immoral,” Yasmin Mahboubi, the head of UK government relations at Oxfam, told openDemocracy. “It will put lives at risk and is legally flawed.”
While the plan remains under judicial review, with legal challenges having so far prevented any asylum seekers from being offshored to Rwanda, nine people were deported to Zimbabwe in September alone – despite the country’s worsening political climate.
** please note that QARN does take credit for organising the petition for Josy
Updated 24 August 2022: It looks as though there is a deportation flight to Zimbabwe planned for 7 September 2022. These deportations need to stop!
26 August 2022: Guardian: Albanian with British-born children faces deportation after decade in UK
Man, who has no criminal record, says Home Office is unfairly targeting Albanians as it fast-tracks removals
An Albanian man who was taken to Harmondsworth immigration removal centre near Heathrow airport last week has been told he faces imminent deportation, the day after the Home Office announced plans to fast-track the removal of refused Albanian asylum seekers.
The man, who claimed asylum in the UK a decade ago, has no criminal record, has never absconded and says he has consistently complied with immigration requirements by reporting fortnightly to the Home Office. His two children were born in the UK and have leave to remain.
“It’s like I have a knee in my neck, like they are suffocating me,” he said, speaking from the removal centre. “They came to search the restaurant where I was helping out, more than 10 of them, all wearing uniforms. They said they have a tipoff that an illegal staff member is here and started asking people about me. They gave me no explanation, just taking me to [the] police station, holding me there and then to the immigration centre. They treat me like an animal.”
The man, who is being held on immigration charges after his appeal rights were exhausted, says he has a right to family life as his children were born in the UK and have leave to remain. He believes the Home Office is unfairly targeting Albanians.
“The whole of this place [Harmondsworth] is full of Albanians. It looks like they’re rounding us up to put us on a charter [flight] out of here. The guy I’m sharing a cell with, over half the wing, they are Albanians.
“It went through my mind that this is [a] revenge against us. It looks like the government are finding loopholes to take us out. Everyone is so distressed and scared – we don’t know what will happen to us.”
On Thursday, the Home Office announced a deal with the Albanian government, which aims to remove refused asylum seekers “as soon as possible” amid a rise in the number of small boat arrivals from Albania.
See this post: Public Order Bill is a Threat https://statusnow4all.org/public-order-bill-is-a-threat/
Updated 30 June 2022: The flight to Nigeria/Ghana took off last night
Global Upfront 38 Nigerians Deported From UK Arrive MMIA Lagos
Thirty-eight Nigerians deported from the United Kingdom (UK) have arrived in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, according to authorities in Nigeria.
Read more: https://globalupfront.com/2022/06/30/38-nigerians-deported-from-uk-arrive-mmia-lagos/
Earlier …
It seems that two of the three women were taken off the list at the last minute by Court interventions, along with at least one other. Below is information from the Twitter page of the amazing Movement for Justice.
Movement for Justice@followMFJ We’re told there are 30 people sitting in the plane now at Birmingham Airport, including a gay man who faces persecution in Nigeria and 3 vulnerable women.
Movement for Justice@followMFJ Looks like flight has been delayed till at least 11.30pm – we know there’s still some injunctions pending – @hifly_airline YOU CAN STOP THIS INJUSTICE – refuse to fly! Ground the flight! Do not be complicit in this gross injustice!
Movement for Justice@followMFJ 1 of 3 women got injunction – will be taken off flight, others pending- these flights are torture- people terrorised in service of this govts sick racist political theatre to divert attention from their corruption & abject failure
Movement for Justice@followMFJ A second woman just got an injunction!!! We think that’s just 1 woman left on the flight now. Still some court decisions pending for other
Jacqueline (Jacqui) Mckenzie@JacquiMckenzie6 Pleased to update that this woman was taken off the plane just now. But imagine a PTSD sufferer getting so close to deportation, leaving behind her 3 children & husband, for the Home Office to concede whilst a judge was reviewing her case – Home Office could have acted earlier.
DuncanLewisPublicLaw@DLPublicLaw Yday, just a few hours before the #NigeriaGhana50 charter flight, Judge ordered a stay on our client’s removal. He’d been a tireless volunteer for @SheffCityofSanc before he was taken & detained by the Home Office.
Movement for Justice@followMFJ We’re told there are 30 people sitting in the plane now at Birmingham Airport, including a gay man who faces persecution in Nigeria and 3 vulnerable women. @hifly_airline once again you have blood on your hands
Movement for Justice@followMFJ The plane has started moving onto the runway 
@hifly_airline you have blood on your hands! #StopThePlane#StopTheFlights#EndDeportations#NigeriaGhana50
See https://twitter.com/hashtag/NigeriaGhana50
29 June 2022: See the report from Daisy and Moses protesting at Hassockfield/Derwentside IRC
… as women were being removed for deportation. Read more: : https://statusnow4all.org/enabling-nurse-daisy/
BBC: Protest at Derwentside women’s detention centre over removal flights
Protesters gathered outside an immigration detention centre for women over plans to send a number of inmates to Nigeria on a charter flight.
Derwentside Immigration Centre in County Durham opened in December and replaced Yarl’s Wood as the sole women-only centre in the UK.
Demonstrators shouted chants of “set them free” and claimed those affected had been denied proper legal advice.
The Home Office denied they were unable to access support.
Protesters claimed the women would be flown from the UK to West Africa late on Wednesday.
They had said 13 women were due to be removed but later revised the number down to three or four. The BBC has been unable to confirm the number involved.
Two buses entered the site in Hassockfield, near Consett, early evening and one was later filmed leaving.
Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-61985478
Updated 27 June 2022: Removal of women to Nigeria planned for 29 June 2022
Guardian: Women with children in UK face deportation to Nigeria and Ghana
Human rights campaigners raise range of safety concerns over planned removal of people on Home Office charter flight this week
Mothers and grandmothers, some of whom have lived in the UK for decades, are among those facing deportation to Nigeria and Ghana on a controversial Home Office charter flight on Wednesday.
Women the Guardian has spoken to estimate that at least 10 of them are facing removal. It is unusual to see such a large number of women on a deportation flight to the west African countries.
Some suffer from severe mental health problems and are on anti-psychotic medication.
Human rights campaigners say there are a range of safety concerns regarding the removal of those due to be onboard the flight, including religious persecution, modern slavery, rights to family life, and persecution because of sexual orientation.
Updated 31 May 2022: The deportation of refugees to Erbil has been cancelled.
“The order to forcibly deport asylum seekers has been annulled,” the Iraqi federation said, citing British refugee adviser Awan Abdulla as saying.
The federation further said no planes would be allowed to transport asylum seekers forcibly deported from the UK to Iraq without the federal government’s decision.
The federation cited an asylum seeker who is in custody in London as saying that the Home office had informed him that the decision to forcibly deport him had been revoked.
More than 60 asylum seekers, most of whom are from the Kurdistan Region, are in custody in the UK, according to the Iraqi federation. They were scheduled to be deported to Erbil on Tuesday.
On May 26, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) denied rumors that it had reached an agreement with the British government over the forced deportation of Kurdish asylum seekers.
Guardian: Home Office cancels flight to deport Kurdish asylum seekers to Iraq
Campaigners against flight say Kurdish Iraqis had endured ‘unnecessary torture in pursuit of headlines’
The Home Office has cancelled a chartered deportation flight to Iraq that was due to depart from the UK on Tuesday evening.
Up to 30 Kurdish asylum seekers were facing deportation to northern Iraq in the first flight of its kind for a decade.
Dozens of Kurdish Iraqis had been detained in preparation for the flight. Many the Guardian spoke to were in a state of acute distress because they fear for their lives if they are returned to the country of their birth.
The UK Foreign Office warns against all travel to Iraq and says there is “a high threat of kidnapping throughout the country including from both Daesh [Islamic State] and other terrorist and militia groups”.
Home Office contractors involved with Tuesday’s deportation had to undergo special training to help them deal with the risk of dangers such as kidnap or hostage situations. This training is not required for the destinations of other recent Home Office deportation flights, such as Jamaica and Albania.
30 May 2022: IFIR: فیدراسیۆنی پەنابەران – IFIR: Dashty Jamal secretary of IFIR’S speech at picket in front of the KRG office against forcible deportation of Kurdish asylum seekers
Dear representative of refugee organizations and Human right activists!On behalf of the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) and the people detained in Harmondsworth,brockhouse and Colnbrook detention centres, I would like to thank everyone who came out today to oppose the planned deportation of Iraqi Kurds, some of whom have been in the UK for more than 20 years. These refugees are married with small children.We are protesting in front of your office against the inhumane agreements you struck with the UK Home Office.The Home Office has detained a number of Iraqi Kurdish asylum seekers in Harmondsworth,brockhous and Colnbrook detention centres in the last three weeks. The Home Office has given them tickets to fly back to Erbil tomorrw.This policy, we believe, is the result of a recent meeting between Priti Patel and Kurdish Regional Government’s Prime Minister Masrour Barzani during his recent visit to the UK.KRG must be aware that as a result of this shamefulagreement, they are removing families and children from their fathers. These people have spent many years establishing themselves in the United Kingdom. Do you want to send them back to a country which lacks fundamental necessities such as power, water, medication, and freedom? To a country where human rights are routinely violated. When people demonstrate, the government uses live ammunition to attack them. Many people, including journalists who have spoken out against corruption and government policies, have been killed, imprisoned, or arrested.People are angry because you refuse to accept responsibility for the suffering of your own citizens. You must take responsibility for this shameful deal with the UK Government. We demand that the KRG must stop accepting refugees who have been forcibly returned to Erbil Airport by closing the airport.We also urge that the arrangement made with the UK government be cancelled.Thank you for attending. We must continue to resist this inhumane immigration policy and make it clear that it will never be accepted.
Updated 28 May 2022: Stop the deportations to Iraq
BIDUK: Act now to stop the mass deportation to Iraq on 1st June
Hear from those on the flight & show your support by emailing your MP.
All the names have been changed to protect our clients’ identities.
We have encountered a number of Iraqi nationals who have been detained from the community. Many have been in the UK for decades and have very few remaining connections in a country that has been torn apart by invasion and protracted conflict in recent years. Some people are fearful of the treatment they will receive upon return.
Those facing removal are seeking to resist their removal in whatever way they can. We recently received an email petition from Colnbrook IRC stating the following:
The Metro: Man who’s lived in UK for 20 years one of ‘up to 50’ facing deportation to Iraq
‘Despite knowing about this flight for many weeks, the Home Office only issued people with their removal ticket last weekend – just over a week before the flight, and on a day that lawyers are not working.
‘In the attempt to deport as many people as possible on this single flight, the Home Office appears to be obstructing access to justice.
‘We are impressed by the organising work being done by Iraqi nationals who are currently detained, who are uniting to raise awareness of the injustice.’
A reminder about vaccinations for people threatened with removal from UK, using Rwanda as an example: Malaria is endemic in Rwanda. Up to 20% of children die of it before age five. Those who remain are mostly immune. However new arrivals who have not previously suffered it are likely to get it, unless they are protected. Among the many legal challenges to the government’s policy of sending people to Ruanda will be one concerning malaria protection. This danger is worth mentioning to anyone in immigration removal centres.
Updated 18 May 2022: Guardian: UK deportation flight to Jamaica takes off with seven onboard
Home Office initially had 100 people on list of Jamaican nationals to be removed, say reports
A Home Office deportation flight to Jamaica took off in the early hours of Wednesday morning with seven people onboard.
Some media reports said the Home Office initially had 100 people on the list of Jamaican nationals that officials hoped to remove.
Although the number was low it was more than the four who left on a Jamaica deportation flight last November. Four of the most recent flights had 17, 13, seven and four people onboard.
Home Office deportation flights to Jamaica are among the most contentious carried out by the department as many of those earmarked for removal have Windrush connections or have been in the UK since childhood, with children and other close relatives in the country. Some convicted of drugs and firearms offences as teenagers have been found to be victims of county lines grooming and exploitation.
[…] Among those who did not fly was Mark Nelson, who has lived in the UK for 22 years, has five British children and was facing deportation following a conviction for cultivating cannabis plants. A 34-year-old man with severe learning difficulties also had his ticket cancelled.
About 30 detainees not due to fly to Jamaica blocked the exercise yard at Colnbrook immigration removal centre near Heathrow airport on Tuesday evening to try to prevent officers from removing three men due to fly. The protest was dispersed and the three men were taken to Stansted airport to board the flight.
Karen Doyle of Movement for Justice, an organisation that has been campaigning against Wednesday’s charter flight, said: “At 2am this morning we had to comfort a new mum whose family and future have been ripped apart. Today she has to tell their five-year-old daughter who dotes on her daddy that he’ll likely never again be in the same room as them. These flights are brutal and inhumane.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/18/home-office-deportation-flight-jamaica-takes-off
Updated 13 May 2022: Guardian: I’ve lived in Britain 22 years and have kids here – why am I being deported to Jamaica?
On Wednesday, I will be put on a Home Office flight, torn from my five children. How can I tell them I’m never coming home?
There are few people who never make any mistakes in life. Most of those who do something wrong admit to it, apologise and are allowed to move on. But if you’re Black and you come from Jamaica it’s a different story.
I made a mistake and because of it, on Wednesday 18 May, I will be put on a Home Office deportation flight to the country of my birth and torn apart from my five British children and my family.
I came to the UK in 2000 at the age of 21. In 2017, I received a four-year sentence for growing cannabis plants. I hold my hands up, I did something wrong, I served two years of that sentence, and would never do anything like that again. I have not committed any further offences. But this government does not accept that people like me deserve a second chance. One mistake and my life and my future have been shattered for ever.
Updated 5 May 2022: Corporate Watch: 2021 UK CHARTER DEPORTATIONS: A BALANCE SHEET
[Written 9 March 2022] Last year, the Home Office deported a total of 1,305 people on 65, multi-leg charter flights. While deportations from the UK have dropped overall due to the pandemic, the use of charter deportation flights increased more than threefold during this period, representing 45% of total deportations.
Based on Freedom of Information Act requests by Patrice Petit and flight data records, we’ve identified the airlines profiting from these mass deportations, and aim to provide context and analysis. For the full list of flights and destinations, see Annex 1 at the end of this article.
[…] All the FOI responses analysed for this report contained a section of boilerplate text which states that deportations are “often frustrated by last minute challenges submitted hours before a scheduled flight”, before promoting the Home Secretary’s new Borders and Immigration Bill as a tool to deport people more easily. Indeed, the Bill contains a number of clauses that will “accelerate” deportations and remove the rights of people facing them to contest the Home Office’s decision through the courts. We should then expect that once this bill passes (it is currently at the Report Stage in the House of Lords), and the legislation comes into force, that chartered deportation planes will become even more central to the UK border regime.
This year has shown that the government is able to organise twice-weekly deportation planes and find willing partners even when public pressure mounts against the most egregiously racist mass expulsions. Going after the private airlines and other companies profiting from these flights can be effective, but only when campaigning is sustained and collaborators actually feel their reputation or bottom-line threatened. Legal action can also be effective in cutting the numbers of people removed on charter flights, but often falls short of challenging the wider deportation charter flight machine.
With the number of deportation planes likely to continue ramping up in 2022, direct action must be taken to prevent these mass expulsions from continuing to proceed unchallenged, and becoming more normalised. Targeting the private companies that carry them out is still one of the weakest links. More than ever before, diverse groups must coalesce country wide to apply legal, reputational and direct physical pressure to ground the planes.
Read more: https://corporatewatch.org/2021-uk-charter-deportations-a-balance-sheet/
Updated 1 April 2022: Coventry Observer: MP’s plea over Coventry British Army veteran from Zimbabwe who is facing deportation
COVENTRY South MP Zarah Sultana is calling on the Military of Defence to prevent the deportation of a British Army veteran from Zimbabwe who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Joram Nechironga arrived in Britain in 2001 where he joined the army and undertook his tours in the two war zones.
His experiences saw him suffer PTSD which went untreated and led to alcohol addiction. It culminated with him being sentenced to two years in prison for assaulting a family member and drink-driving.
After serving his time, the dad-of-two, who lived in Hillfields, had started rebuilding his life.
Because of his conviction, which is now four years ago, Joram was served with a deportation notice and on February 17 was detained by the Home Office.
He was set to be deported to Zimbabwe on March 2 but – after his legal team and Ms Sultana urgently raised the case with the Home Office – his deportation was deferred.
He has since been released from detention but is subject to electronic monitoring and bail conditions.
Updated 4 March 2022: Gov.UK: 40th Universal Periodic Review of human rights: UK closing statement: Zimbabwe
In Zimbabwe, I acknowledge the repeal of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and welcome the launch of Zimbabwe’s national disability policy. However, I am concerned by restrictions on freedom of assembly, the harassment of journalists, opposition and civil society, and constitutional amendments which risk reducing judicial independence. I call on Zimbabwe to increase access to basic documentation, tackle gender-based violence and hold accountable those individuals responsible for human rights violations. I recommend that Zimbabwe fully implement the Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry Report and 2018 Election Observer Report recommendations, and align the Marriages Act with the constitution to criminalise child, early and forced marriage.
Updated 3 March 2022: This was yesterday, the day of the deportation flight: Zimbabwe: Politics and Government: Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office written question – answered on 2nd March 2022.
Lord Alton of Liverpool Crossbench
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of reports of violence and intimidation of opposition politicians, their supporters, and trade unions, ahead of parliamentary and local by-elections in Zimbabwe on 26 March; and what steps they are taking in response.
The UK remains concerned by the human rights situation in Zimbabwe. This includes a lack of accountability for human rights violations, including those responsible for the death of protestors in August 2018 and January 2019, at the hands of the security forces. We are also aware of recent reports of police brutality and efforts to frustrate the opposition‘s right to free assembly. While the UK welcomes steps to legislate for an Independent Complaints Commission, the test will be its ability to act independently and effectively.
We have been clear that we want to see the Government of Zimbabwe meet its international and domestic obligations by respecting the rule of law and safeguarding human rights. The Minister for Africa emphasised these messages when she spoke to President Mnangagwa on 1 November 2021 at COP26. Alongside significant development assistance to help ordinary Zimbabweans, we continue to support civil society organisations focused on human rights. On 1 February 2021, the UK imposed sanctions on four security officials responsible for some of Zimbabwe’s worst human rights violations under the current regime. Our sanctions do not target, and seek to avoid impact on, the wider economy and people of Zimbabwe.
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2022-02-21.HL6214.h&p=24911
Voice online: British soldier nearly deported in Home Office mix-up
MP says Joram Nechironga should be allowed to stay, as lawyers gear up for a court appeal.
FORMER BRITISH soldier Joram Nechironga was almost deported by mistake despite government officials confirming to Nechironga’s lawyer that the deportation had been put on ice until an appeal is heard.
In what appears to be a mix-up in the Home Office, Nechironga was taken from Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre, near Heathrow, and transferred onto a bus before being driven towards the airport.
After making a series of phone calls Melch Riyo, from Tann Law Solicitors in Coventry, confirmed that he had got Home Office officials to tell the enforcement officers on the bus that Nechironga should not be deported.
Zimbabwean national Nechironga spent five years fighting in Iraq as a British soldier, and developed post-traumatic syndrome – and a range of other mental health conditions, as well as alcoholism – as a result of trauma suffered in combat, his lawyers insist.
He went on to commit a string of traffic offences and common assault against his son, as a consequence of untreated PTSD, leading the Home Office decision to deport him.
Updated 2 March 2022: from signatory organisation BARAC: Urgent action- Iberojet airline to operate deportation flight tonight.
https://www.change.org/p/uk-home-office-stop-the-charter-flight-deportations-to-zimbabwe/u/30282197
Iberojet are operating the mass deportation charter flight to Zimbabwe tonight which was scheduled to depart from Birmingham airport at 10.30pm but which we understand to now be delayed until 11.30pm.Out of 150 targeted, 13 are still booked on the flight but we expect this number to drop due to appeals. But nobody should be deported like this, especially not people who fled persecution and will be at danger now.Please can you urgently take action and call on Iberojet to #stoptheplane. #Zimbabwe150#stoptheplane#enddeportations#boycottiberojet
**ReTweet:**
BARAC@BARACUK·You can stop being racist @iberojetair_es and #stoptheplane. Why are you coming to the UK to target black people here for deportation , people who fled persecution as refugees. Where is your humanity? #Zimbabwe150
Updated 20 February 2022: People are being detained in preparation for a mass deportation to Zimbabwe on 2nd March 2022
28 February 2022: See the latest post from Daisy: Giving voice to Daisy on parenting, deportation, and protest
Sometimes it’s not even about the number of people attending but it’s about raising awareness and making an impact to people’s lives. People in detention centres are always aware that we stand in solidarity with them. I am proud to stand against this cruel act that the home office have unleashed upon our friends.
Read more: https://statusnow4all.org/enabling-nurse-daisy/
24 February: These Walls Must Fall @wallsmustfall
The UK government has rounded up Zimbabweans into detention centres, and plans a mass deportation flight on March 3rd. We stand in solidarity, and call for their immediate release. Zimbabean Lives Matter! #StopTheFlight#TheseWallsMustFall
22 February 2022: From Zita Holbourne of BARAC: Change.org: Stop the Zimbabwe mass deportation – join the demo on 23/2, use our model letter to write to your MP
A model letter you can use and adapt, to send to your MP to ask them to stop the mass deportation to Zimbabwe on 2nd of March. Access the model letter here
A demo against the flight taking place 11.30am tomorrow, 23rd of February, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London. Please attend if you can. See flyer below.
If you or anyone you know is impacted, please get in touch – we can offer support and advice, recommend lawyers if you don’t already have one and signpost to legal and other services.
We are using the hashtags: #Zimbabwe150 and #stoptheplane on social media.
Join us on Sunday 27th February to protest against the Nationality and Borders Bill which if introduced will see an increase in deportations.
Read more here: https://www.change.org/p/uk-home-office-stop-the-charter-flight-deportations-to-zimbabwe/u/30243479
ZHRO : Event: 23 February 2022, 11.30am: Demonstration at the Zimbabwe Embassy
429 The Strand, London WC2R 0JR from 11:30am: UN Highly critical of Zimbabwe, torture, abductions, rape https://twitter.com/zhro_zimbabwe/status/14944866138077962271
StatusNow: Deportation in this cruel hostile environment
This cruel hostile environment has given rise to yet another Home Office plan to deport people to Zimbabwe on 2 March 2022. StatusNow4All abhors this decision made in the name of the Home Secretary, Priti Patel.
Read more: https://statusnow4all.org/deportation-in-this-cruel-hostile-environment/
Updated 15 February 2022: SOAS Deportation Support : Stop TUI Campaign Success
In early 2021, a campaign was launched by a coalition of groups, coordinated by SOAS Detainee Support (SDS), targeting the airline and holiday company TUI. The campaign’s goal was to end TUI’s complicity in the Home Office’s Hostile Environment. For around two years, TUI was the main airline flying mass deportation charter flights. They ran nine in November 2020 alone, and were responsible for many hundreds of deportations. For more about TUI and their role in the Hostile Environment, see here.
All deportations are racist, violent and wrong. No private organisations should be profiteering from the Home Office’s brutal deportation regime, and it is particularly shameful for a business to do so whilst selling itself as family-friendly and inclusive. The tragedy of the violence TUI engaged in is compounded by the harrowing treatment of many deportees, frequently mistreated and abused.
TUI gained significant financial benefits from running these deportation flights. Some seats on their charters earnt them upwards of £10,000. Whilst running flights that tore people from their homes and families, TUI also drastically cut their workforce, laying off tens of thousands of workers. All this whilst receiving massive bailouts from the German government and paying their top execs salaries in the millions.
Throughout our campaigning, we coordinated a range of actions targeting TUI airways, both in person and offline. In August we arranged a national day of action, mobilising activists and shutting down TUI stores in 10 cities simultaneously. In September, we held a massive demonstration. Following these actions, we received word through back channels that TUI had pulled out of their agreement with the government.
We have requested statements from TUI explaining the reason for the halt in their engagement with the Home Office’s deportation regime. They have consistently declined to comment on this, and as we are committed to protecting our sources, we were unable to corroborate in the press. However, it has now been almost six months since TUI has run a flight whilst previously they were weekly. We are happy to announce the success of the campaign.
Read more: http://www.soasdetaineesupport.co.uk/stoptui-campaign-success/
Updated 11 February 2022: BARAC@BARACUK Warning that Zimbabweans have been detained over the past week
and we are advised that they will be deported by charter flight on 2nd of March. If you/family/ friends are at risk please get urgent legal representation now. Don’t wait to be detained. #Zimbabwe150 #enddeportations https://twitter.com/BARACUK/status/1492096044498366468
Updated 10 January 2022: Big Issue: Exclusive: Number of people deported on Home Office charter flights triples during pandemic
Almost one in six of the government’s charter flights leave with fewer than 10 passengers, new figures reveal
The number of people deported by the Home Office on charter flights has nearly tripled since 2019, The Big Issue can reveal.
More than 1,000 people were removed on the controversial flights last year – but one in six planes left with fewer than 10 people on board.
The findings have renewed calls for charter flights to be scrapped.
Zoe Gardner, policy and advocacy manager at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), told The Big Issue: “We need to see urgent changes to this broken system that tries to deport people at all costs – people should not be exiled from the only place they’ve ever called home, and everyone deserves the right to have their cases calmly and fairly assessed.”
18 November 2021: The Home Office wanted to deport a 75-year-old American woman with a Zimmer frame who has lived in the UK since 1968 after she received a 12-month prison sentence for drugs offences. Now overturned on appeal. https://bailii.org/uk/cases/UKUT/IAC/2021/287.html
Guardian: US woman who has lived in UK for 53 years wins deportation appeal
Senior judges said deporting Polly Gordon, 75, would disproportionately interfere with her human rights
[..] Karen Doyle, of the organisation Movement For Justice, condemned the Home Office plans to deport Gordon. “There’s nothing that illustrates more starkly the inhumanity of the Home Office than their plans to put an elderly and infirm woman on a plane to a country she hasn’t lived in since the 1960s,” she said. “People like her are viewed as low-hanging fruit by the Home Office. This is exactly how the Windrush generation were viewed.”
Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/17/us-woman-who-has-lived-in-uk-for-53-years-wins-deportation-appeal
11 November 2021: Guardian: UK deportation flight with four onboard raises questions over viability
Jamaica charter cost equivalent of £50,000 per person, as Home Office hits out at legal challenges
The Home Office’s admission that only four people were deported to Jamaica on a flight in the early hours of Wednesday morning has raised questions about the continuing viability of such flights.
The Airbus A350-900, which can take up to 350 passengers, left Birmingham airport at 1.20am on Wednesday with four of an original list of more than 50 deportees onboard, along with escorts and crew. The average cost of a Home Office deportation charter flight is £200,000, so the operation cost the equivalent of £50,000 a person. The numbers removed on the last four Jamaica charter flights have decreased steadily at 17, 13, seven and now four.
[…] Karen Doyle, of the organisation Movement For Justice, said: “These unjust flights rip families apart. Of the 34 detainees we spoke to many had no or inadequate legal representatives.”
Bella Sankey, the director of Detention Action, said: “All of those removed from this flight were removed because either the court or the Home Office decided their removal would be unlawful. Yet still those removed may have had inadequate legal advice as a result of the shambolic operation of the legal advice system in detention. The high court has now given permission for Detention Action’s challenge to these shortcomings to be heard next month.”
9 November 2021: Guardian: Most detainees taken off deportation flight list to Jamaica after activists block road
Stop the Plane protesters lock themselves to pipes outside detention centre near Gatwick airport
Most of the people due to board a controversial deportation flight to Jamaica on Wednesday have been removed from the flight list, as anti-deportation activists have blocked the road in front of a detention centre to try to prevent them from being put on the plane.
The activists, calling themselves Stop The Plane, have locked themselves to metal pipes outside Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick airport.
Originally more than 50 Jamaican nationals were due to fly, but the Guardian understands most are no longer on the passenger list.
The flight was due to depart at 1am on Wednesday morning with only two or three passengers onboard. Messages online from anti-deportation groups said the flight departed Birmingham airport with just three deportees on board a plane able to seat 350 people.
Home Office deportation flights to Jamaica are controversial because of the Windrush scandal. Although the Home Office says nobody from the Windrush generation is on the list, some have Windrush connections.
Event: URGENT DEMO! next Thursday 4 November 2021 JA govt @AndrewHolnessJM must REFUSE flight!
Updated 10 November 2021: The Guardian – Most detainees taken off deportation flight list to Jamaica after activists block road
Most of the people due to board a controversial deportation flight to Jamaica on Wednesday have been removed from the flight list, as anti-deportation activists have blocked the road in front of a detention centre to try to prevent them from being put on the plane.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/09/two-thirds-of-detainees-due-to-be-deported-to-jamaica-removed-from-list?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Updated 30 October 2021: Movement for Justice@followMFJ 6 Jamaican detainees came UK as kids. Londoners, Mancunians & Brummies. half groomed into criminal activity as children. contact JA High Commissioner- unacceptable JA allows deportation of people, British in all but passport colour.
Updated 28 October 2021: Movement for Justice@followMFJ·
first removal directions issued for #Jamaica50 charter flight – THE FLIGHT IS SCHEDULED FOR 10th NOVEMBER – most Jamaicans detained at Colnbrook where COVID is once again ripping through the centre @AndrewHolnessJM you can REFUSE! #StopThePlane#EndDeportations#KillBordersBill
Updated 7 September 2021: The Examiner: Man who came to Bradford aged nine deported and given just £40 to start new life thousands of miles away from family and friends
Bruce Mpofu has no friends or family in Zimbabwe after moving to the UK when he was nine – with fears he could end up homeless
A man who moved to the UK at the age of nine was given only £40 to help him start a new life after he was deported back to Zimbabwe.
Bruce Mpofu, from Bradford, left the Southern African country with his mum who works for the NHS.
However, at 15 he got in with the wrong crowd and committed a crime which meant he was in breach of immigration laws.
Bruce then had to attend regular meetings before he was told on July 8 that he would be deported.
He does not have any friends or family in the country due to the number of years he has lived in the UK and there are fears he could end up homeless after being handed only £40 to help him start a new life in Zimbabwe.
Read more: https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/man-who-came-bradford-aged-21478741
Updated 3 September 2021: Guardian: Home Office spent almost £9m on deportation charter flights in 2020
The Home Office spent almost £9m on deportation charter flights last year, the Guardian has learned, including more than £500,000 for planes that never left the tarmac.
At least 828 people were removed by air, more than double the 410 removed on similar charters in 2019. The department spent £8.2m on 47 charters to 24 countries in 2020, with 18 of those countries in Europe.
The Home Office no longer provides specific figures when there are fewer than 10 people on a flight. Eleven of the flights had fewer than 10 people on board, meaning the exact number is unclear.
Ministers also paid £575,748 for five flights that never took off – two to Spain, two to Pakistan and one to Somalia. Officials say that they paid less than the usual cancellation costs on these flights as some flights could be rebooked or rescheduled.
Bella Sankey, director of Detention Action, said: “These lavishly expensive flights make a mockery of good governance and value for money. But even worse than the economic waste, is the harm and pain they’ve funded. Semi-naked, self-harming refugees have been exported to face destitution across Europe and black British families unable to pay legal fees have been ripped apart by these flights.
“At present, our deportation and removals system is unsafe & unjust and any airline which believes in corporate social responsibility should refuse to operate it.”
Updated 26 August 2021: from SNN signatory BARAC@BARACUK:
TUI Airways lines its pockets from human misery The British charter airline has been responsible for at least 21 deportation flights since January 2021. Enough is enough, says ZITA HOLBOURNE, Chair of @BARACUK https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/tui-airways-lines-its-pockets-human-misery…
t.co/xcQmF6W2SH?amp=1(opens in a new tab) @stoptui_eastldn@stoptui_cam@StopTUI_Notts
Zimeye: BREAKING: UK Deportation Flight Arrives In Harare
The 7, down from an initial 9, are now heading to Zipam quarantine centre where they will stay during the mandatory 10 days of isolation.
Sources at Gatwick Airport told ZimEye, scores of Zimbabweans were bundled up at 5pm yesterday en route for deportation to Zimbabwe.
Although there was no traceable detail on flight tracking websites, a chartered jet is expected to arrive with the group of deportees at RGM airport on Thursday morning.
The phone number of Zimbabweans deported could not be determined at the time of writing.
The deportations are part of an agreement between the British Embassy in Harare and the Foreign Affairs Ministry in which 6,000 Zimbabweans classified as foreign offenders are being sent back to their country of birth.
Read more here: BREAKING: UK Deportation Flight Arrives In Harare – ZimEye
Updated 24 August 2021: African Global Voices adds
that most of the people who are being deported have long-term medical conditions, and require medicine 💊 daily which will not be available to them in Zimbabwe.
TUC calls for deportation flights to be suspended
The TUC has today (Tuesday) called on the government to urgently suspend all deportation flights and to address “the miscarriages of justice that have taken place within the immigration system”.
The call comes as more flights are planned for this summer.
The full statement to the Home Office reads:
The TUC stands for the rights of all workers from all countries, regardless of immigration status.
The TUC calls on the government to suspend deportation flights until it has fully addressed the miscarriages of justice that have taken place within the immigration system, and to scrap the new Nationality and Borders Bill that would breach international human rights law and increase worker exploitation.
The TUC is concerned that the Home Office does not adequately check the circumstances of those they targeted for deportation. Many have no family, social or financial links with the countries they are due to be deported to, and would be placed at risk of persecution, isolation and poverty.
These deportations are also taking place whilst high levels of Covid-19 infections are still present in immigration detention centres. This puts both residents and staff at risk and jeopardises the health and wellbeing of asylum seekers, those involved in the deportations, and communities in the countries that asylum seekers are deported to.
We are also concerned about the utilisation of commercial airlines and the chartering of specific flights in forced deportations and the impact this has on front-line staff, including ongoing incidents of trauma suffered by those working on flights carrying deportees.
The government’s hardening attitude, indicated by the increased rate of deportations, is reflected in the Nationality and Borders Bill, which proposes that those fleeing persecution will not have the right to claim asylum in the UK. This is a clear breach of the UK’s commitments under the UN Refugee Convention and Protocol. The Bill also seeks to prevent many asylum seekers from being able to claim rights at work which will increase the exploitation of workers.
TUC Congress 2015 asserted the need for the government to ensure there are safe, legal routes for people fleeing persecution to claim protection in the UK, and that the rights of asylum seekers are respected. The TUC echoes the call made by our European trade union partners for governments to uphold the UN Refugee Convention and ensure those fleeing persecution can claim asylum and rights at work.
BARAC@BARACUK·@The_TUC Statement calling for mass deportations to stop #stoptheplane#Zimbabwe150@CookieBaloo@brolezhollowayhttps://tuc.org.uk/news/tuc-calls-deportation-flights-be-suspended…@BameFor@OpBlackVote
The Independent – Zimbabweans recently deported from UK now homeless on eve of new Home Office flight
Men who were deported to Zimbabwe on a charter flight last month are homeless and living in fear of the authorities, it has emerged, as the Home Office prepares to send another mass removal flight to the country.
The Independent has spoken to two deportees who are living on the streets of Zimbabwean cities Harare and Bulawayo and are having to “beg for food” after being forcibly removed along with 13 others on a controversial flight to the southern African nation on 21 July.
Campaigners are meanwhile calling on the Home Office to halt a second removal flight to Zimbabwe scheduled for Wednesday. Dozens of Zimbabweans are said to have been rounded up and placed in removal centres in recent weeks, including those who have been in Britain since they were young children.
This is not new information but just to highlight that when racism leads to miscarriages of justice, and that miscarriage of justice leads to deportation, we have a serious problem and people’s lives are put at risk:
MyLondon.news: Black men ‘viewed as suspects before committing a crime’ claims ex-officer as racism in policing inquiry launched
The National Police Chiefs’ Council is implementing a board to scrutinise its policing of Black communities. An ex-police officer said he is ‘highly sceptical’ of efforts by senior police chiefs to tackle racism in policing.
Ali Hassan Ali, 40, claims Black men are often viewed as suspects before committing a crime by officers. Mr Hassan welcomes the fact the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Plan of Action on Inclusion and Race is being scrutinised by an independent oversight board chaired by high profile barrister Abimbola Johnson.
But he doubts the council’s ability to progress relations with Black communities. “Police chiefs are outdated and out of touch,” Mr Ali said. “There’s always advisory and inquiry groups. There are so many groups and boards but no change.
Read more: https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world-news/black-men-viewed-suspects-before-21225963
Updated 21 August 2021: BARAC@BARACUK·Update* we are hearing that deportations on commercial flights for those in Colnbrook have all been cancelled
but no confirmation re charter flight mass deportations. Covid has spread and inadequate support, care or action for those with covid. #stoptheplane#Zimbabwe150
Updated 19 August2021: BARAC: Second Mass Deportation to Zimbabwe: Home Office Summer of Suffering for Black & Asian communities
There is a second summer deportation charter flight to Zimbabwe on 25th August, only 1 month after the last. This also follows mass deportations to Vietnam in July and Jamaica last week where of 90 people targeted only 7 were deported but still 7 people torn from their homes and families. Our thoughts are with them and their loved ones.
But the low numbers actually deported on these flights demonstrate they should never have been targeted in the first place.
Last week following the flight to Jamaica which was operated by Spanish airline Wamos Air, BARAC UK, Black and Asian Lawyers for Justice together with the organisations which co-organised the Zimbabwe petition met along with community groups also campaigning against deportations and detention and agreed some actions to campaign against this deepening hostile and racist environment faced by migrant communities in the UK and we will update you with actions to get involved in.
Please read on for some actions you can take and be involved in: https://www.change.org/p/stop-all-charter-flight-mass-deportations-to-jamaica-other-commonwealth-countries-jamaica50/u/29483945
Updated 17 August 2021: Movement for Justice@followMFJ Guess 2 much 2 ask @ukhomeoffice take COVID safety seriously & properly lock down Colnbrook
– now ravaged by COVID. found out they snatched Albanians last night 4 yet another charter flight to country already struggling w/COVID #Jamaica50#StopThePlane
Independent: Immigration detainees ‘fearing for their lives’ as people with Covid not moved due to lack of space
Home Office accused of ‘putting political agenda ahead of public health’ as new detainees moved into removal centre ahead of deportation flights despite coronavirus outbreak
People in a UK removal centre say they fear for their lives after it emerged more than a dozen have tested positive for coronavirus but are not being moved to other units because there is “no space” to do so.
The Home Office has been accused of prioritising mass deportation flights over public health as it continues to detain people in Colnbrook removal centre, near Heathrow, despite an escalating Covid outbreak in …
Read more here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/removal-centre-covid-outbreak-deportation-colnbrook-home-office-b1903295.html
Equanicity: UK’s detention and forced removal of Afghans in recent years and what the UK Government must now do
A Twitter thread by Bella Sankey, Director of @DetentionAction
My organisation @DetentionAction has supported tens of Afghans in detention in recent years. The highly traumatised people we have come across in detention frequently arrived in the UK as unaccompanied children having fled the most unimaginable horrors in Taliban controlled parts of Afghanistan including their parents being killed.
The @ukhomeoffice response to this was too often to reject asylum claims and then begin removal proceedings against them when they reached 18. The UK has forcibly removed tens of thousands of Afghans back to Afghanistan in the past decade. Until 2016 there were monthly charter flights, delivering people back to grave risks and to the catastrophe we are now seeing unfold.
As well as those refused asylum, anyone with a conviction and a sentence of over 12 months would be brutally removed, including young people who received convictions that were clearly linked to past traumatic experiences. Until the end of last week, the Home Office position was that people could safely relocate to Kabul and the Courts have frequently failed to properly challenge this claim.
There remain thousands of undocumented Afghans in the UK and people waiting on an asylum decision. We have one client currently still in detention.
Read more: http://www.equanicity.org/?p=2358
Updated 11 August 2021: Record of live broadcast in Facebook, from:
Manchester – https://fb.watch/7jsjMX_HCr/
Newcastle upon Tyne – https://fb.watch/7jslrhukvI/
Updated 11 August 2021: This is cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment by the UK Home Office and all that cause this situation to arise. Big shout out to Diane Taylor of the Guardian and May Bulman of the Independent, and the many others who keep this in the public eye :
BARAC@BARACUK·
Of the 100 approx targeted by UK gov for deportation to Jamaica in early hrs of this morning we think 7 were actually on the plane thx to collective efforts. But that’s still 7 families ripped apart. Shame on @Wamosair who tweet about their pride in every flight. #jamaica50
Spanish airline @Wamosair is operating the mass deportation of #Jamaica50
The Guardian: Chaos as more than a dozen people taken off deportation flight from UK to Jamaica
High commissioner urges Home Office to stop flight because of Covid cases and spread of Delta variant
The hours before a controversial Home Office charter flight to Jamaica was due to take off were mired in chaos and confusion as more than a dozen people were removed from the flight after legal challenges.
The original Home Office “long list” for the flight is believed to have had 90 names on it. But the fate of the deportation flight hung in the balance on Tuesday evening as only about one tenth remained on the schedule. Tweets from a campaign group in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and flight tracker data, suggested the plane did eventually depart.
Sanjay McLean, whose lawyers argued that he has the right to British citizenship under the Windrush rules, secured a stay of execution in an out-of-hours high court hearing. But the Home Office appealed in an attempt to get him on the plane.
Two of the men due to fly attempted suicide and were taken to hospital.
The Jamaican government continued to raise concerns about whether the people due to fly were Covid-free and had had PCR tests before being taken to the plane. Discussions about whether to grant the plane landing rights in Kingston are understood to be ongoing. Concerns were also raised by lawyers and human rights campaigners about the vulnerability of some due to fly because of advanced age and mental health problems.
There have been at least two Covid cases confirmed among Jamaicans due to board the flight at Colnbrook immigration removal centre near Heathrow where most of those due to fly were being held. Some of the others were asked to isolate after close contact with those who had tested positive.
Updated 10 August 2021: Guardian: Jamaica calls for deportation flight from UK to be halted over Covid fears
High commissioner urges Home Office to stop flight after outbreak among those due to be onboard
The Jamaican government has called on the Home Office to halt a controversial deportation flight to the island nation scheduled to leave on Wednesday due to concerns over “importing” the Delta variant of Covid, the Guardian has learned.
A flight was scheduled to take off from Birmingham airport but is now due to take off from Stansted in the early hours of Wednesday morning. About 18 people are due to be deported. Many of those due to be removed have convictions for drug offences, some relatively minor ones and some more major.
It is understood many of those due to board the flight have not been deemed dangerous in assessments by Home Office officials. Many have British children and some have partners who are key workers, such as nurses for the NHS.
Updated 9 August 2021: Reported by ZHRO – deportation flight to Zimbabwe on 23rd August;
and BARAC@BARACUK·In addition to the #Zimbabwe150 deportation flight 2 weeks ago #Vietnam22 flight a week ago & #jamaica50 flight this Weds, the Goverment have now arranged a 2nd mass deportation flight to Zimbabwe on 26th Aug. #stoptheplane
Independent: Man with right to British citizenship facing deportation to Jamaica
Home Office accused of ‘ignoring’ rules of Windrush scheme by trying to forcibly remove father-of-two
A man who has been in the UK for nearly 30 years and is believed to have the right to British citizenship under the Windrush scheme is facing deportation to Jamaica in two days. Sanjay McLean, 41, moved to Britain aged 12 in 1993 to join his father, Alpheus Thompson, a British citizen who first came to the country in the 1950s as part of the Windrush generation.
Read more here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jamaica-deportation-windrush-british-citizen-b1899394.html
Morning Star: Widely condemned charter flight to Jamaica to go ahead, despite claims that deportee tested positive for C-19
THE Home Office is pushing ahead with a widely condemned charter flight to Jamaica on Wednesday, despite claims that one deportee has tested positive for Covid-19.
Campaigners fear that there may be more cases of the virus at Colnbrook detention centre, near Heathrow, after a man tested positive on Sunday. It’s understood that he had previously been held in a shared dorm but has since been moved into isolation.
The detainee is one of dozens of men booked on the flight whose deportations have been triggered by past criminal convictions.
Many have lived in Britain since childhood and campaigners argue that removing people who have already served their sentences amounts to “double punishment.”
Several MPs have joined calls to halt the imminent flight, including former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, who has branded the deportations “cruel, arbitrary and expensive.”
Karen Doyle of campaign group Movement for Justice said the detainee who has tested positive is still booked on tomorrow’s flight.
Read more: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/jamaica-flight-covid
Independent: More than 100 councils and charities vow to boycott Home Office policy to deport rough sleepers
Exclusive: Local leaders, including London mayor, pledge not to collaborate with ‘draconian’ measures
More than 110 local councils and charities have vowed to boycott a controversial new Home Office policy to deport foreign rough sleepers.
Rules that came into effect on 1 January made rough sleeping grounds to cancel or refuse a non-British national’s right to be in the UK.
In April, the Home Office published guidance stating that the new powers can only be used if “a person has refused repeated offers of suitable support and engaged in persistent anti-social behaviour”.
But campaigners said the policy could push already vulnerable people, including victims of modern slavery, further into the fringes of society, and that the limitations announced in April were “far from sufficient”.
Now it has emerged that nine local authorities and 102 charities have vowed not to refer non-UK rough sleepers to the Home Office under the policy, by signing up to a campaign called Support don’t Deport
Observation from our signatory organisation Migrants At Work, Ake observes:
“If you have a job, you earn an income. If you earn an income, you get a roof over your head. If you have a job with no labour protections, we are all likely to lose it. Instead of deporting people, the government need to act to prevent people from losing their job in a first place”
Updated 8 August 2021: See the statement from StatusNow here: https://statusnow4all.org/shoulder-to-shoulder-everywhere-until-deportations-stop-and-statusnow4all-starts/
Update 7 August 2021: LBC: Caller awaiting deportation to Jamaica shares harrowing story with David Lammy
This caller is being held in a deportation centre to be sent to Jamaica next week – despite being in the UK since age 2.
The Home Office is sending a charter flight to Jamaica on 11 August filled with people who have served time in British Prisons, some of whom haven’t ever set foot on the Caribbean island.
David Lammy spoke to Omar, who arrived in the UK aged two and has spent the remaining 22 years of his life in Britain.
“I came to England when I was two years old and they’re trying to deport me on my convictions of the past, when I was a minor, from the ages of 14 to 17,” he told David.
The caller revealed he was being detained in Colnbrook awaiting deportation in a matter of days.
Read more and see the video: https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/david-lammy/caller-awaiting-deportation-to-jamaica-shares-harrowing-story-with-david-lammy/
Jeremy Corbyn@jeremycorbyn: This cruel and discriminatory deportation flight
must be cancelled. Many MPs, including myself, who have constituents scheduled to be on this deportation flight to Jamaica on August 11 will fight it all the way.
Update 6 August 2021: from StatusNow signatory organisation BARAC:
On Change.org: Sign the petition: Cruel summer of mass deportations tearing families apart Stop #Jamaica50 deportation flight
Petition Update: Dear Supporters, It is now less than a week until the government plan to deport up to 50 people to Jamaica. They include people who came to the UK as small children, as young as 2 years old. The majority have British partners and children.
The government last year, ahead of their Christmas Covid deportation to Jamaica made an agreement not to deport those who came to the UK under age 12 but are now reneging on that. Branding people who have spent all their childhood and then adult life, done all their education in the UK, who have raised their own British born children here as foreign national criminals is disgraceful. Britain is their home.
Read more and sign here: https://www.change.org/p/stop-all-charter-flight-mass-deportations-to-jamaica-other-commonwealth-countries-jamaica50/u/29425755
on Twitter: BARAC@BARACUK· Today is #JamaicanIndependenceDay but the legacies of enslavement & colonialism led to #windrushscandal & nearly 60 years after independence why is Jamaica gov signing up to deals with @HomeOffice_UK to accept mass deportations by charter flight in 2021? #jamaica50#stoptheplane
Claudia Webbe MP Leicester East writes: Mass deportation flights have nothing to do with protecting the public. They are a cruel, racist, and disproportionate form of punishment that is not designed to make Britain safer but instead to stoke the flames of racial hatred and division.The upcoming charter flight to Jamaica must be abandoned, along with the entire hostile environment.
A reminder from Bail for Immigration Detainees – BID: of two reports dated 6 June 2021 Reports highlight the harms faced by UK families threatened with a family member’s deportation
Reports call on the Government to recognise the impacts of the immigration system on UK families, including British children.
UK families living with a member’s insecure immigration status and threat of deportation, face extreme and wide-ranging harm. According to new research, such families are likely to be poorer, sicker and unhappier, even when they include British citizens and children.
Two separate reports are being launched on 8 June: one by the Universities of Birmingham and Bristol, the other by Bail for Immigration Detainees. The reports call on policy- and decision-makers to recognise the impacts of the immigration system on UK families, including British children, and take steps to protect their human rights and ability to navigate the system more fairly.
Update 5 August: Guardian: Outcry over plan to deport Jamaican nationals who came to UK as children
Move comes despite Home Office ‘agreement’ not to remove those who arrived in Britain under age of 12
Preparations are being made for the deportation of a number of Jamaican nationals who came to the UK as children, in an apparent reversal of an earlier agreement not to deport people who arrived in this country as minors.
A charter flight to Jamaica is scheduled for 11 August, returning several dozen people whose criminal convictions have triggered deportation orders. However, campaigners have protested that it is unreasonable to remove people who have spent a lifetime in the UK to a country where they have no ties.
Last November the Home Office made an agreement with Jamaican officials not to remove people who came to the UK under the age of 12, according to Jamaican high commissioner Seth Ramocan. “They have consented to having an age limit. It’s a request that has been granted,” he told the Guardian last year. It is not clear whether this concession was granted only for the last Jamaica deportation charter in December, amid strong public pressure against the flight, with support from Bernardine Evaristo, model Naomi Campbell and historian David Olusoga.
Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/aug/05/outcry-over-plan-to-deport-jamaican-nationals-who-came-to-uk-as-children
Update 5 August 2021: Left Foot Forward: Government urged to cancel ‘discriminatory’ mass deportation flight to Jamaica that will ‘tear people away from their families’
Human rights group Liberty has described the deportation flights as ‘cruel’.
The government is being urged by MPs and campaigners to cancel a deportation flight to Jamaica scheduled for August 11, amid concerns its passengers could be children of windrush.
A deal had previously been made between the Jamaican High Commission and the Home Office in 2020, not to deport anyone who had lived in the UK since before they were 12 years old.
Human rights group Liberty has described the deportation flights as cruel and which will ‘tear people away from their families’.
A petition which has been set up urging people to take action against the Home Office’s ‘summer of racist mass deportations’ has gained over 180,000 signatures.
It states: “The Home Office has planned a summer of mass deportations by charter flight to Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Jamaica, Pakistan, Ghana and Nigeria.
“They have already deported 14 people of a planned 150 to Zimbabwe on 21st of July.”
It goes on to add that the Home Office is ‘planning more than one charter flight to Jamaica this year and are disproportionately targeting people from the Caribbean, in particular Jamaica, for deportations’, adding: “Most of these will be the descendants of the Windrush Generation who are still experiencing the devastating impacts of what became known as the Windrush Scandal with the vast majority of those impacting yet to receive any compensation.
“These mass deportations are racist and an abuse of human rights.”
Update 2 August 2021: See information about demonstrations against deportations to Zimbabwe here: https://statusnow4all.org/secret-deal-to-remove-zimbabweans-from-uk/
BARAC@BARACU https://twitter.com/BARACUK There is a another mass deportation flight to Jamaica on 11th August, we need your support to #stoptheplane . If you or someone you know is detained and has no legal representation pls get in touch (with BARAC) . If you may be at risk get legal advise now.
Movement for Justice @followMFJ *EMERGENCY DEMO* Jamaican High Commission – THIS WEDS 4 Aug 2pm #Stoptheplane demand JA govt REFUSES charter flights – at very least reinstate deal to exempt those who came as children! #Jamaica50 #StopCharterFlights #EndDetention #EndDeportations REPARATIONS NOT DEPORTATIONS!
Change.org: Caribbean, African, Asian people disproportionately targeted for deportations; please take action.
Dear Supporter, The Home Office plan to deport around 50 people to Jamaica on 11th August.
Read more here: https://www.change.org/p/stop-all-charter-flight-mass-deportations-to-jamaica-other-commonwealth-countries-jamaica50/u/29406145
29 July 2021: Novara media: A Deportation Flight Just Left for Vietnam. Why Was It So Hard to Stop?
It isn’t just because everyone who would usually care is on holiday.
In the days between discovering the Home Office deportation charter flight to Vietnam and its scheduled departure time, activists mobilised rapidly.
SOAS Detainee Support (SDS) – an organisation based out of the university, which undertakes casework and direct action in aid of immigration detainees – led two Twitter storms, calling on the government to #StopThePlane. By the time the hashtag began trending on Wednesday afternoon, however, it was too late.
At 5.30pm that day, between flights to Ibiza and Tenerife, Edinburgh and Amsterdam, a TUI Airways Boeing 787 Dreamliner slipped out of Birmingham Airport headed, activists suspect, for Vietnam, only the second deportation flight the Home Office has ever chartered to the country, the first being in April.
Activists – whether grassroots campaigners or immigration lawyers – rarely stop deportation flights, particularly within the hostile environment, though they can heavily mitigate their effects. Such is the Home Office’s determination to execute deportations that in October, the department spent tens of thousands of pounds to deport a single person to France, after his 29 co-passengers were removed by legal challenges.
Though a number of the roughly 22 people initially put on Wednesday’s flight list were subsequently removed from it, this wasn’t thanks to activists, but to coronavirus – an outbreak at Brook House Immigration Removal Centre, where a number of the Vietnamese deportees are currently detained, left them unsafe to fly.
But while deportation charter flights are generally difficult to prevent, this one was especially so – for a number of reasons.
Read more here: https://novaramedia.com/2021/07/29/a-deportation-flight-just-left-for-vietnam-why-was-it-so-hard-to-stop/
28 July 2021: Morning Star: Lawyers fear Britain is to deport victims of human trafficking to Vietnam
IMMIGRATION lawyers and campaigners fear that potential victims of torture and trafficking were due to be deported to Vietnam on a charter flight today.
The Morning Star understands that around 20 Vietnamese nationals were scheduled for removal at around 5.30pm from Birmingham on Wednesday on the second charter flight to the country this year.
Several people due to be onboard were removed just days prior, including potential victims of trafficking and sexual abuse, as well as a mother with young children who has been in Britain for over 15 years, campaigners told the Star.
Among those taken off the flight was a young woman who had been forced to work in Britain to pay off her father’s debt to loan sharks in Vietnam, and who feared persecution on her return.
Read more here: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/lawyers-fear-britain-is-to-deport-victims-of-human-trafficking-to-vietnam
27 July 2021: Sign the petition: BARAC@BARACUK·
Take Action against the Home Office Summer of Racist Mass Deportations https://change.org/p/stop-all-charter-flight-mass-deportations-to-jamaica-other-commonwealth-countries-jamaica50/u/29387013…#enddeportations #Vietnam22 #jamaica50 #Zimbabwe150 #stoptheplane #boycottTUI #boycotthifly
BARAC@BARACUK·CALL TO ACTION – PLZ RT. We believe that at 5.30pm tomorrow @homeofficeuk and @TUIUK will deport up to 22 people from Birmingham to Vietnam. Tweet @TUIUK & tell them that this flight must not depart. #StopThePlane#TUIDropDeportations#Vietnam22
Published 26 July 2021: From the Home Office: Government strikes deal to remove more Albanian prisoners
More Albanian criminals will be removed from the UK and transferred from prisons in England and Wales after Ministers signed a new agreement today (Monday 26 July).From: Ministry of Justice
- Deal agreed to remove more Albanian offenders from the UK
- There will be no early release after transfer, as prisoners will serve their full sentence in Albania
- Removed prisoners will be barred from ever returning to UK
- Albania will pay the costs of housing prisoners transferred from Britain
The deal means more offenders can be sent back to serve their full sentence in Albania, with victims assured they will still serve the full sentence imposed on them by a British judge.
Taxpayers will no longer have to pay to accommodate these offenders, and those transferred will be barred from returning to Britain, giving further peace of mind to victims.
UK and Albanian justice Ministers, Chris Philp and Etilda Gjonaj, formally approved the Prisoner Transfer Agreement in London this morning. The agreement works both ways and includes provisions for British criminals in Albanian jails to be returned to the UK.
Albanian nationals currently represent the highest percentage of foreign nationals in custody with more than 1,500 in prison in England and Wales – around 10% of overseas criminals in jail. The UK does not collect statistics on British prisoners in overseas jails, but the number imprisoned in Albania is thought to be extremely low.
Minister for Immigration Compliance and Justice, Chris Philp, said:
We are committed to removing foreign criminals who have abused our hospitality and inflicted misery on our communities.
Someone who commits a serious crime in the UK should be barred from returning so that the taxpayer no longer has to pay for them and victims can be confident justice has been done.
Since January 2019, the Government has removed 7,985 foreign national offenders from our prisons, immigration removal centres and the community.
The deal builds on an earlier agreement and means that offenders must spend at least the same amount of time in custody as they were sentenced to by a judge in the UK.
It also clarifies that prisoners can be transferred without their consent and outlines the information that receiving states need in an application – speeding up the process.
Notes to editors:
- The Agreement must be ratified by each state. The UK does not require new legislation and the Government hopes transfers will begin from the autumn.
- The cost of removing Foreign National offenders falls to the transferring state, while the remaining period of detention falls to the receiving state.
- Offenders are barred from returning to the UK through Home Office deportation orders.
25 July 2021: Guardian: Disproportionate targeting of Jamaicans for deportation from UK, data suggests
Exclusive: FoI figures from Home Office indicate that nationals of particular countries who commit crimes appear more likely to be removed
People from Caribbean countries such as Jamaica appear to be disproportionately targeted for deportation from the UK if they commit crimes, according to Home Office data obtained by the Guardian following a yearlong freedom of information battle.
One pressure group said the high percentage of Jamaican nationals deported was particularly glaring given their greater likelihood of having family ties in the UK, and warned that it could further erode the trust of people affected by the Windrush scandal.
Nationals from Ghana and Nigeria are also removed significantly more often than the overall average, the figures show. Another set of controversial Home Office chartered deportation flights to both countries are expected next month.
Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/25/disproportionate-targeting-of-jamaicans-for-deportation-from-uk-data-suggests