[IMC-UK-Features] feature proposal: The Colnbrook blockade

[Shiar]

Title: The Colnbrook blockade

Author: imc-uk-features

Image: /images/2009/05/430053.jpg

Abstract:
<p>
For the second time in less than two months, anti-deportation campaigners
blockaded a detention centre to try and prevent a mass deportation flight
to Iraqi Kurdistan. Six activists from the Stop Deportation network locked
themselves together on 12th May, using glass and plastic arm tubes
attached to heavy concrete barrels, blocking the entrance to Colnbrook
detention centre, near Heathrow, where some 45 of the deportees were being
held. The blockade lasted for over four hours, after which three coaches
carrying the deportees left for an undisclosed airport. All six were
arrested (two quite violently) for obstruction of the highway.
</p><p>
<a href="/en/2009/05/429934.html">Colnbrook IRC under Blockade</a> | <a
href="/en/2009/05/429942.html">Blockade of Colnbrook detention centre</a>
| <a href="/en/2009/05/429975.html">Colnbrook blockade ends with 6
arrests</a> | <a href="/en/2009/05/430052.html">Pictures</a> | Video
</p><p>
<strong>Related:</strong> <a
href="/en/2009/03/424608.html">Anti-deportation campaigners blockade
Tinsley House immigration prison</a></p>

Content:
<p>
As soon as the blockade was removed by the police cutting team around
12:45pm, three WH Tours and Woodcock coaches were seen leaving the
detention centre carrying about 45 deportees. Another 10 or so had been
taken from Brook House detention centre at Gatwick earlier this morning.
The time, airline and departure airport of the flight have not been
disclosed by the Home Office but it is believed to have left Stanstead
that afternoon. Six people were taken off the flight following last-minute
high court injunctions. Another man, who had not been given Removal
Directions but was nonetheless being deported, was also taken off.
</p><p>
The flight was the 9th mass deportation flight to Iraqi Kurdistan in the
last 10 months. Iraqis are also deported individually or in groups of two
or three on commercial flights such as Royal Jordanian. According to Home
Office figures, 632 people have been forcibly deported to Iraqi Kurdistan
between 2005 and 2008. With monthly charter flights deporting 50 Iraqis at
a time since the beginning of 2009, it is estimated that the figure
currently stands at approximately 950.
</p><p>
A similar mass deportation flight to Iraq in March this year was met by
campaigners with a similar <a href="/en/2009/03/424608.html">blockade of
Tinsley House detention centre</a> at Gatwick airport, which lasted for
six hours and resulted in nine arrests.
</p><p>
Mass deportation flights limit refugees' access to due legal process. The
UK Border Agency's Enforcement Instructions and Guidance states that:
"charter flights may be subject to different arrangements where it is
considered appropriate because of the complexities, practicalities and
costs of arranging an operation." Charter flight deportees are told that
"removal will not necessarily be deferred in the event that a Judicial
Review is lodged". The emphasis is on filling the flight rather than
ensuring the appropriate legal avenues have been exhausted. In the case of
Iraq charter flights, deportees and their representatives are not even
told the date of the flight. On the day of the flight, they are woken up
early in the morning and forced to switch off their phones so they are
unable to instruct their solicitors to submit last-minute appeals.
</p><p>
Many of those deported to Iraqi Kurdistan had fled the Kurdistan Regional
Government authorities, to whose mercy they are being sent back. Last
month, a <a
href="http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=18152">report by
Amnesty International</a> revealed "a pattern of abuses" committed by KRG
security forces. A 2007 <a
href="http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2007/07/02/caught-whirlwind-0">report
by Human Rights Watch</a> similarly revealed that KRG security forces
"routinely torture and deny basic due-process rights to detainees."
</p><p>
To operate a charter flight, of course, the Home Office contracts a number
of private companies. Airlines that are known to have been used include
Hamburg International and Czech Airlines. Bus companies to drive people
from detention to the airport have included WH Tours and Woodcock coaches.
Private security companies used to escort deportees include Group 4
Securicor and SERCO.
</p>