Embedded Files
"On a charter flight there are no ordinary people to witness any struggles between asylum seekers and escorts. Nobody can hear you scream."
"On a charter flight there are no ordinary people to witness any struggles between asylum seekers and escorts. Nobody can hear you scream."
Anonymous deportee
Anonymous deportee
A notice of a failed-claim that includes a note about how the recipient can be detained and deported at any time.
When a person is slated for deportation, they are notified by letter. These notifications are supposed to happen far enough before the deportation date for a detainee to get their affairs in order. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, this is not the case. Some people get their letters “weeks after” it was sent out. Detainees are often sent to solitary prior to their deportation in an attempt to separate them from anyone who would intervene in their deportation. Their phones are shut off the night before they are removed. After being restrained, detainees are loaded into a van that they have to sit in for hours. There is no break to use the bathroom, or to eat or drink.
One detainee will be accompanied by two guards from the private security firm Tascor. Detainees are routinely cuffed in “restraints so extreme that they are rarely used in prisons.” The waist restraint belt has a benign name and a traumatic impact. The restraints make it impossible to move your back or arms. It cuts off your airflow, making it easier to pass out. There are leads on the outside of the belt that work like leashes. These waist restraint belts are supposed to be used in exceptional circumstances, and a senior security officer must record why they were used. This is not the case in practice. Instead, detainees are “treated like animals.” One person deported to Jamaica said that when they arrived, “My wrists were bleeding from the handcuffs being on so tight.” These restraints make it easier for the security personal to literally drag detainees onto the charter flights. In 2017, disabled woman who was the victim of trafficking was hauled through the airport “like a goat.” One representative from the charity Medical Justice said her organization has “documented hundreds of cases of alleged assault by escorts since 2005.”
A detainee hangs a sign out her window that reads "Treated Like Animals" (above). A waist restraint belt (below).
These charter flights are extremely costly. One charter flight to Afghanistan would cost the UK tax-payers £300,000 if it were cancelled. In spite of these risky costs, flights are premeditated. The Home Office spent £14 million on chartered flights in 18 months in 2015.
Flights are regularly scheduled to Pakistan, Kosovo/Albania, Afghanistan, and Nigeria/Ghana at regular times. This suggests that the Home Office has plans to deport people before they know if they have the numbers. The policy regarding forced removals to Nigeria and Ghana has the code-name “Operation Majestic.”
No third-party or government representatives are on these flights, so what happens on them is a lot of guesswork. The UK government pays millions of pounds every month to enact mass deportations on charter flights. One of the top charter companies is Titan Airways. These flights are hired with the greatest secrecy. They usually take off in total darkness. Where they take off from varies, but it is always unknown to the detainees and the public. Sometimes commercial jets are used, but often the company or passengers will intervene and prevent the deportation. On the flights, people watch movies, cry, or sleep. Guards keep the doors to the bathroom open so they can “keep an eye on them.” Access to pillows, blankets, and hot drinks is limited by the guards, sometimes outright denied.
Detainees have often protested violent removals from the center. In 2012, detainees released a statement in response to the “degrading and inhumane” removal of Christine Nakato to Uganda:
“We have witnessed on several occasions the degrading and inhumane manner that women are being deported back to their countries in Yarl's Wood but particularly today; we witnessed a fellow sister, Christine Nakato from Uganda being forcefully taken naked by about 7 men out of the Centre to be deported. Christine was naked, and had a blanket over her body, whilst the officers were dragging her to the airport to be deported with her head bent down permanently by the officers for her face not to be identified by other residents.
Christine's hysterical shouting and screaming drew our attentions to her and we cannot understand why a human being should be treated in that form. We were informed during our meeting that Christine had been injected by the officers to subdue her and make her unconscious in order for the UKBA to forcefully enforce her removal from the UK.”
The detainees included a list of demands that all went unanswered.
What is the Fast-Track Appeals System?
What is the Fast-Track Appeals System?
The fast-track appeals system was introduced by Tony Blair’s government in 2005 in response to the rise in immigration following an open-door policy. This system exploited loopholes to make deportation easier. These new rules made it harder for asylum-seekers to appeal their case as it "gave appellants just 14 days to gather evidence" before deportation. This meant that people could be deported without due process and without proper notice. The policy was abandoned around 2017 following a backlash against the injustice inherent in this system. In 2019 a high court ruling stated that a queer woman deported to Uganda was subject to a "procedurally unfair" asylum process. She was granted the right to return to the UK. This set a new precident for the hundreds of immigrants who were deported under these rules. It is unclear how the change in policy will impact those who were already deported, but without these rules in place, it is harder to do a quick deportation.
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