Tag: deportations

Air Partner: the Home Office’s little-known deportation fixer

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6 February 2023 — 

Air Partner and Carlson Wagonlit are the grease spinning the wheels of the UK deportation machine, organising logistics for mass-deportation flights for years.

International travel megacorp Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) holds a £5.7 million, seven-year contract with the Home Office for the “provision of travel services for immigration purposes”, as it has done for nearly two decades. However, a key part of its work – the chartering of aircraft and crew to carry out the deportations – has been subcontracted to a little-known aviation charter outfit called Air Partner.
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UK: Removing clause 9 and beyond

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16 December 2021 — Institute of Race Relations

Of all the abhorrent clauses in the government’s Nationality and Borders Bill, which passed its Commons stages last week, it is clause 9 – which would allow ministers to revoke the citizenship of British nationals without notice on ‘public interest’ grounds, which has caused the most outrage. When the New Statesman reported that the clause could affect up to six million citizens who have or have access to a second citizenship, most from ethnic minorities, fear and anger erupted on social media, in the press, in parliament and in MPs’ constituency surgeries. Activists and community groups have responded with alacrity to raise the alarm, with almost a quarter of a million people signing a parliamentary petition to remove the clause from the bill. The IRR is working with several organisations including Reprieve, Muslim Association of Britain, Rights and Security International, and Status Now for All to oppose clause 9.

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UK: The Hostile Environment Will Affect All EU/EEA Citizens Not Covered by The EU Settlement Scheme from 30th of June

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5 March 2021 — Migrants Organise

Solidarity

EU citizens with complex mental health needs risk being removed and indefinitely detained from 30th June. Migrants Organise is taking the Home Office to court to prevent this injustice.

In this blog, our Legal Organiser, Brian Dikoff, argues that unless action is taken now, tens of thousands more vulnerable people are at risk of being left without any immigration status and plunged into the Hostile Environment.

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The deportation machine in 2020 / Rough-sleeper raids rebranded

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12 June 2020 — Corporate Watch

UK deportations 2020: how BA, Easyjet and other airlines collaborate with the border regime

Deport

On 30 April, with UK airports largely deserted during the Covid-19 lockdown, a Titan Airways charter plane took off from Stansted airport deporting 35 people to Poland. This was just a few days after reports of charter flights in the other direction, as UK farmers hired planes to bring in Eastern European fruit-pickers.

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IRR News (29 January – 12 February 2020)

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13 February 2020 — Institute of Race Relations

Institute of Race Relations weekly digest – Against Racism, for Social Justice

On Tuesday, a charter-deportation flight to Jamaica carried passengers who had lived in the UK since early childhood – against a recommendation of the unpublished (but leaked) ‘Windrush: Lessons Learned’ review. Protesters against the deportation flight shut down Whitehall and over 170 MPs wrote asking the minister to reconsider the failure to publish the review or to follow its recommendations, indicating the government’s unconcern for both past and present victims of the Windrush scandal. Boris Johnson poured scorn on protestors as ‘the Westminster bubble’ and indicated his intention to re-examine the process of judicial review.

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Sign the Petition! Stop all charter flight deportations to Jamaica and other Commonwealth countries

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6 February 2020 — Change.org

ZITA HOLBOURNE started this petition to Boris Johnson MP (Prime Minister) and 1 other

Given the  Windrush scandal : the apology by the Government, promises of justice and compensation to people of the Windrush generation and others who came to the UK from Commonwealth countries threatened with deportation, there should be no mass deportations of anybody  to those countries.

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New EU deportation law breaches fundamental rights standards and should be rejected

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11 September 2019 — Statewatch

A proposed new EU law governing standards and procedures for deportations would breach fundamental rights standards, massively expand the use of detention, limit appeal rights and undermine ‘voluntary’ return initiatives. It should be rejected by the European Parliament and the Council, argues a new analysis published today by Statewatch. [1]

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UK: “Stansted 15” anti-deportation protesters found guilty of terrorism charges By Margot Miller

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17 December 2018 — WSWS

Fifteen UK anti-deportation activists, accused of terrorism offences for preventing the departure of an immigration removal charter flight from London Stansted Airport, have been found guilty.

Following a nine-week trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, the jury found the “Stansted 15” in contravention of the rarely used 1990 Aviation and Maritime Security Act, by endangering safety at an airport. The defendants, who are preparing to appeal the verdict, face potential life prison sentences and await sentencing in February.

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What the Stansted 15 Tells Us About Law and Order in Britain

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23 November 2018 — True Publica

What the Stansted 15 Tells Us About Law and Order in Britain
By TruePublica: Back in September, three environmental activists were the first people in Britain since 1932 to receive jail sentences for non-violent anti-fracking protest in the UK. An appeal was lodged and public outrage caused a new judge to declare that the original ruling was ‘excessive”. This excessive use of the law is being used again in another case, which has more serious consequences.
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IRR News (6 – 19 July 2018)

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20 July 2018 — Institute of Race Relations

Institute of Race Relations weekly digest – Against Racism, for Social Justice

The lethal consequences of ‘hostile environment’ policies continue to be revealed in our regular calendar of racism and resistance. On 20 June, as Harmit Athwal reports, 23-year-old Mustafa Dawood was found dead after falling from a building in Newport, Wales, as immigration officers carried out a raid at a car wash.

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IRR News (20 April – 3 May 2018)

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3 May 2018 — IRR

Institute of Race Relations weekly digest – Against Racism, for Social Justice

The last couple of weeks have been dominated by the ‘revelations’ – familiar to many of our readers – of the inhuman consequences of the government’s ‘hostile environment’ policies. Some of those affected – the mostly Caribbean Commonwealth citizens who came to the UK as children in the 1950s and ‘60s to join their parents, who were often British when they arrived but unknowingly lost citizenship when their countries became independent – have lost jobs and suffered homelessness, ill health and massive stress. In the case of Dexter Bristol, it killed him. 

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