Two very important events were due to happen today. The British government was due charter a flight to Jamaica with up to 50 deportees on board and the sentencing of the Stansted 15 was to take place.
The charter plane did take off with 35 people on board. There were a couple of people who managed to avoid deportation through legal processes. The Stansted 15 were not jailed, they were given suspended sentences and community service.
The Home Office just destroyed more families as it deported another 35 people to Jamaica
6 February 2019
Excerpt from Source: The Canary
On 6 February, the Home Office deported around 35 people to Jamaica. This came on the same day that the Stansted 15 were sentenced for their role in trying to prevent this brutal practice that destroys lives and families. No matter what home secretary Sajid Javid may say, the Windrush crisisis far from over. The UK’s ‘hostile environment‘ is getting worse.
End Deportations
In May 2018, Javid admitted that at least 63 “members of the Windrush generation could have been wrongfully removed or deported from the UK since 2002”. So on 5 February 2019, Labour’s David Lammy asked Javid to rule out the possibility of further mistakes for the men due to be deported. He also asked:
Once enslaved, then colonised, and now repatriated… Why is it that in this country, black lives mean less?
Javid defended the deportations claiming all had “been convicted of a serious crime”. He also claimed none were UK citizens or members of the Windrush generation.
This stood in stark contrast to other reports: (see tweets in source article)
Later, it emerged that six people were granted leave to stay. But there was no hope for around 35 other people. A Titan Airways charter flight left at 8.16am.
“Until there is justice”
As Satbir Singh, chief executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, said:
It’s inappropriate for the government to resume mass deportations, particularly to the Caribbean, before the Windrush Lessons Learned review has even concluded.
Labour MPs have also continued to place pressure on Javid and the Home Office over resuming deportations before resolving the abuse of the Windrush generation. As Lammy said, it’s a “national scandal”; and Dawn Butler also stated that “it’s a disgrace and it’s a stain on our country”.
In total, 57 Labour MPs also tried to stop this deportation flight. Most importantly, we should never forget how vulnerable the hostile environment makes too many people feel.
Solidarity and support
There are growing moves to place pressure on Titan Airways. In a savage twist of irony, the deportations took place on the same day of the Stansted 15 sentencing. They answered a “call for help” and stopped another Titan Airways deportation flight. And yet, as The Canary reported, they faced terrorism charges. Lammy also made this link clear.
The UK’s hostile environment wrecks families and destroys lives. We know that the government made mistakes with at least six people on this flight. So how many more innocent people may be on that plane? No matter what defence Javid gives, it’s a sickening reflection of a twisted government.
Featured image via Wikimedia – Adrian Pingstone
Read full article with tweets here.
Below are articles published in The Voice last week in the run-up to the events as well as articles reporting the outcomes of both events.
Challenging the brutal deportation system is a must
An alleged charter flight to Jamaica is scheduled for next week alongside the sentencing of the Stanstead 15. We must acknowledge the implications for charter flights and the hostile environment, writes Alexandra Wanjiku Kelbert
In March 2017, 15 people made their way to a remote part of Stansted airport, where deportation charter flights have been known to take off in the middle of the night.
The 15 were part of a wider network of people, and were acting on knowledge that the flight leaving that night would be deporting people to Ghana and Nigeria.
Detained Voices, a group of immigration detainees and supporters had been publishing testimonies of some of those due to be on that flight.
The detainees included victims of trafficking, people with ongoing cases, a man leaving behind a pregnant partner and a woman whose former husband had publicly announced his plans to kill her if she ever set foot back in Nigeria. Those now known as the Stansted 15 read some of those testimonies on their way to the airport.
Once there, they chained themselves around the front wheel of the plane and erected a brightly-coloured tripod by the plane’s wing, staying on the tarmac for ten hours, successfully preventing it from taking off. Following the action, 11 people were able to stay in the country, some of their stories finally allowed some time in the spotlight.
Crucially, this was the first time a deportation flight had been grounded in the UK by people taking action against the immigration system.
Charter deportations flights are the government practice of chartering entire flights to deport large numbers of people to specific countries. The flights don’t contain other passengers and take off late at night from undisclosed locations, sometimes military bases, hiding these deportations from public view.
There is substantial evidence that people being deported experience violence and abuse on these secret flights, where they are forced to travel handcuffed and tied with waist restraint belts. In 2017, Diane Abbott described charter flights as “a brutal way of responding to the current immigration panic.” Investigations by Corporate Watch revealed that the government selects people for deportation by perceived nationality so that it can fill flights, including people with ongoing legal claims.
The controversial ‘deport first, appeal later’ policy was been ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court, only 4 months after the action but there are many other ways the government deports people with ongoing claims.
Following the action, all 15 activists were convicted under anti-terrorism laws, the first time these laws were used against peaceful protestors, and found guilty in Chelmsford crown court in November 2018 following a trial which lasted 10 weeks. This constitutes a serious assault on democracy and our right to protest.
While only 15 people were sitting accused in the dock, many of us knew that a whole racist immigration system was on trial too. By conducting the trial in the way that they did, the courts sided with a system that is brutal and inhumane.
Throughout the ordeal of the trial, the End Deportations campaign has been growing, finding friends and allies, and working closely with other groups such as the All African Women’s group, the Chelmsford Quakers, Schools ABC and BARAC UK.
Importantly, the campaign has been steadfast in making sure that the spotlight remained focused on the brutal immigration regime, often using their own experiences of the criminal justice system to draw attention to the appalling conditions experienced by the thousands of people currently filling up immigration detention centres up and down the country who can be held without time limit.
While the Stansted 15 have been found guilty, there is still hope that their convictions will be overturned. The wind is turning for this brutal immigration regime. The Windrush scandal revealed deep public opposition for the hostile environment and the brutal treatment of so many of our families, friends and neighbours.
Groups such as detained Voices and Soas Detainee Support have been alerted of another charter flight due to take off any time between today and the 15th of February to Jamaica.
This would be the first charter flight to head to Jamaica since the beginning of the Windrush scandal. Already groups are coming together to lobby politicians to try and stop the flight from taking off and meetings have been organised up and down the country for people who want to know what they can do to prevent immigration raids and deportations from taking place.
On Wednesday, the Stansted 15 will be sentenced. It is likely that some of them will be looking at custodial time. Whatever happens on Wednesday, a week of action against the government’s brutal immigration regime has been planned for the 11-15th February and many are getting ready to protest against the imminent charter flight to Jamaica.
When a country imprisons some people for peaceful protest, snatches others from their homes in dawn raids, incarcerates them without time limit and forces them onto planes in the middle of the night, due to take them to places where their lives might be at risk, something is very seriously wrong. Thankfully, more and more of us are getting involved in challenging this brutal, inhumane system. Together, we can end the hostile environment for good.
Deportations ‘Slap In The Face’ For Jamaican Community In UK
Campaigners have staged a protest outside the Jamaican High Commission in response to the impending removal of British residents to Jamaica via charter flight
CAMPAIGNERS HAVE held a protest outside the Jamaican High Commission in London today in response to the mass deportations, which they say are a “slap in the face” for the Jamaican community in the UK.
Movement for Justice, the campaign group behind today’s action, are demanding that the Jamaican government cuts ties with the UK government when it comes to the deportation charter flights that they say are racist and unjust.
At the protest, those at risk of deportation spoke out about their experiences and campaigners led chants of “charter flights, no way, Jamaican community, here to stay”.
One protester said that armed police attended the peaceful protest, an intervention she described as “disgusting and disrespectful”.
Movement for Justice is in touch with 16 detainees who face removal from the UK to Jamaica via charter flight. Around 50 people are set to be removed on the flight.
Read full article on The Voice website.
Deportations Of Six Jamaicans Halted
Several individuals who were scheduled to be removed from the UK to Jamaica today have been given a last-minute reprieve
AT LEAST six British residents who were set to be deported from the UK to Jamaica on a charter flight today have had their removals halted.
Around 50 people are believed to be scheduled to be removed from the UK to Jamaica today. The timing of the flight has not been confirmed.
DEVASTATING DECISIONS
Several MPs have called on the government to halt the deportations.
Janet Daby, the Labour MP for Lewisham East, wrote a letter to the home secretary along with 57 other MPs requesting the government brings an immediate halt to the removals.
“We have little faith in the Home Office that has made devastating decisions on the lives of the Windrush Generation and that has not only fairly considered the cases of those on this flight.
“Additionally, it is outrageous that this is happening while the Windrush Generation are awaiting decisions on their resident/citizen status and who are living in debt and just about surviving while having not seen a penny of compensation or hardship money,” the letter reads.
Read full article here.
Stansted 15 Sentencing: Activists Avoid Jail
The campaigners who stopped the takeoff of a deportation flight in 2017 have been given suspended sentences and ordered to do community service
NONE OF the Stansted 15 will be jailed over their protest which halted the departure of a deportation flight in March 2017, a court has ruled.
The group of activists who trespassed into Stansted airport and chained themselves together to stop an immigration removal flight from taking off in March 2017 were found guilty under the 1900 Aviation and Maritime Security Act on terror-related charges in December.
The plane had been scheduled to deport 60 people to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone.
The campaigners who were sentenced Chelmsford Crown Court this afternoon have been handed suspended sentences and community service sentences.
Edward Thaker and Alistair Tamlit both received nine month sentences, suspended for 18 months and were ordered to do 250 hours of unpaid work, Melanie Stickland was handed a nine month sentence, suspended for 18 months and ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work, and May Mackeith was given a community order for 12 months and 20 days rehabilitation activity requirement, Essex Live reported.
Outside the court, protestors gathered to show their support and express their anger at the government’s treatment of the activists and immigration detainees.
As a result of the group’s actions, 11 people have been able to appeal their removal from the UK and are still in the UK, Dexter Dias QC, the lead counsel for the group has said.
Kate Allen, Amnesty International UK’s director, said: “The decision not to jail these brave human rights defenders is a relief, but not enough. They should never have faced this very serious terrorism-related charge in the first place.
Read full article here
Jones (not his real name) arrived in London in 1972, aged 16. More than 40 years later, he was admitted to hospital with a brain aneurysm, where staff told him he may have to cover the £5,000 bill. While there, he lost his home because of his “illegal” residency status and he was ineligible for a bed in a state-funded homeless hostel so he was
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