Please share widely- public appeal regarding multiple charter flights next week
Recently, the Detained Fast Track system was declared unlawful,demanding that the UK Home Office take a serious look at the problems
inherent in its asylum policy. Fast Track does not give people a chance
to make an individual case and moves too quickly. The Home Office does
not seem interested in reflecting on these problems, as next week it has
scheduled two charter flights to leave on the same night of the 28th,
carrying hundreds of people, many of whom have had no chance to make a
case for their right to remain. Many individuals we have spoken to have
outstanding applications which the Home Office intends to steamroller
through or ignore.
Charter flights treat removals as a business, and the people removed as
goods for transporting. A charter is a private flight, hired
specifically to remove people from the UK. They fly with only detainees
and guards and are efficient machines for removing those the Home Office
can manage to refuse, with whatever weak excuses they can find. Private
companies run the flights, making a huge profit from the control and
destruction of lives.
The Home Office would like to be able to bundle anyone onto a charter
flight, whenever possible, without notice. The bigger and more
impersonal the machine the better. Next Tuesday is a strong example.
Two flights are leaving at the same time, one for Nigeria, and one
headed to Sierra Leone via Ghana and Liberia. The attitude of
'wholesale efficiency' and the casual inhumanity of these flights is
written large.
The people condemned by the Home Office to removal (which stands for
persecution, trauma, risk, and potentially death) come from many
different backgrounds and all have a different story to tell. Included
in some of these stories are situations of 'criminal deportation'.
Someone who has been granted right to remain in the UK but does not have
citizenship will always have the threat of the Home Office hanging over
them. If they end up with a criminal conviction, they do not face the
same justice system as those of us with papers in the UK. In addition,
over and above serving the usual sentence, the Home Office can also use
criminal proceedings as an excuse to remove someone they had previously
deemed genuinely in need of protection.
The flight for Nigeria leaves from Stansted airport at 11.30 PM on
Tuesday night. We don't have confirmation on where the other flight
leaves from, but it's scheduled for the same time.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Email or call your MP – find your MPs contact details here
http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/
Contact the Home Secretary, Teresa May by phone, both emails, and
website- details here http://www.tmay.co.uk/contact
Please share widely- public appeal regarding multiple charter flights next week
Complain to Stansted airport that they are allowing this barbaricpractice to take place-
http://www.stanstedairport.com/help-and-advice/your-feedback/
Visit Stansted to spot the plane in question and let us know which
company is making money from human transportation.
Other creative ideas! If anyone wants support or materials to help
spread the word about these flights and get active, or if you have any
ideas, please get in touch.
Please get in touch as well if you are or know anyone affected by these
flights. We are trying to gather information and stories so that the
Home Office cannot make people just disappear.
Share this widely...
No borders! No nations! Stop deportations!
UNITY