How to Help Stop a Deportation:
This workshop will be focused on sharing ideas and strategies on *last minute* interventions to support people who are resisting their deportation.
Resistance can take many forms. During this workshop we will look at last minute legal options to stop a Deportation Order and – if that fails – practical ways to support people who want to resist, including looking at strategies around airline campaigns and contacting airline companies, passengers and pilots during an attempted deportation [1].
It really *can* work to resist even at the last stage, and it is
important that people resisting from the inside are supported from the outside. There are many examples of people successfully resisting their deportations, even being taken off flights at the very last minute – because of emergency legal injunctions/reviews, or because of successful airport campaigns resulted in pilots refusing to fly with a person onboard [2].
If you, or someone you know, is or could be at risk of deportation
please come along to Base, 14 Robertson Rd, Bristol BS5 6JY @ 7pm to discuss in a friendly and supportive environment what we can do to help stop deportations.
*About deportations*:
Over 12,000 people are deported from the UK against their will every year – taken from their life in the UK to another country, by force. That’s one person every 49 minutes.
Around one person in seven is removed on a charter flight – aeroplanes which can carry over 60 deportees and at least twice that number of private security guards, contracted by the Home Office specifically for deportations. Other people, around six out of seven, are removed on commercial flights – put on the back of standard scheduled flights whilst retrained; handcuffed and surrounded by private security guards; from when they are taken from a detention centre, during the flight, until they are handed over to the government they are being removed to.
Deportations are racist – targeting people because of their identity;
and violent – forcing people against their will; they tear lives apart –
breaking up families, friendships, communities.
Deportations are also operated for-profit – private security companies like G4S, Mitie, Serco and Tascor are contracted by the government in the detention and deportation business. For example Mitie, a private security company, was awarded a £525 million government contract in May 2018 to carry out ‘escorting’ – providing security guards for both standard scheduled flights and mass deportation charter flights as well as prisoner transport between detention centres and running the Home Office’s numerous short term “holding facilities”[3]. Also airline companies profit from deportations, especially Titan Airways who are
contracted to carry out mass charter flights, as well as other
commercial airlines that get paid to carry people on their flight.
People facing deportation often resist and face extremely violent
consequences. Private security guards are trained to use force against people to ensure their removal – this includes using pressure-point techniques, ‘restraint equipment’ such as handcuffs, waist-restraint belts [4], chains, and materials tying together peoples hands & feet in order to be able to carry them on the flight. This force has caused many people serious harm and has killed people such as Jackie Nanyonjo, who was assaulted by Tascor guards during her deportation in 2013 and later
died in Uganda from her injuries. And Jimmy Mubenga, father of five, who died from asphyxiation at the hands of G4S guard on a British Airwaysflight during his deportation in 2010 [5].
For some people there is no option but to resist – because they risk more violence, imprisonment or death if deported to the country they fled. Or the deportation with rip them apart from the family, friends and life they have in the UK. As a last resort many people self-harm or attempt suicide before deportation [5].
There is nothing ok about the racist immigration system and its violence against certain identities.
End Detention, Stop All Deportations!
http://enddeportations.com
Footnotes:
[1] It is always important to pursue all legal avenues *before* it gets to the removal stage, do not wait until the last minute. Resisting removal is stressful and risks violence against the person being removed, and if it is not successful will result in deportation and could result in serious harm or fatality.
[2] Due to many complaints and campaigns about forcible deportations some airlines, such as Lufthansa and KLM, have made public statements that they are not willing to transport people against their will any more. Other airlines, such as Kenya Airways, Air China and Air France, have taken people off flights because the pilot has taken the view that they will not carry someone who does not want to travel. All pilots have the legal right to choose not to fly any person they consider to be a safety concern for the flight, whether for medical or security reasons.
[3] https://corporatewatch.org/mitie-wins-deportation-escorting-contract
[4] https://corporatewatch.org/deportees-tied-up-like-animals