Rwanda 'Stop the Plane' deportations

There are moments in history when we can look back and say "Why didn't people do more to stop that?" One of those moments is happening now. The Rwanda flight has been given a green light and is going ahead next Tuesday, despite widespread outrage and growing opposition,  the first flight from the UK filled with up to 130 asylum seekers will, unless the Court of Appeal rules otherwise, take off.to Rwanda. A place 5000 miles away with an appalling human rights record, where they face an unknown future. No promise of safety, no family connections, no hope. 

I am  however so grateful  to all who  have already emailed their MP's  to ask them to sign a pledge to fight the Anti Refugee Laws. Will you consider signing the pledge yourself.https://act.refugee-action.org.uk/page/107117/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=Email1&ea.url.id=5940698 By signing the pledge, you are saying that you will join the  fight to end  these ugly laws, fight the deportations and remember our shared humanity. 

Back in April this year Priti Patel went against basic rules of humanity, against the advice of her own top civil servants and against the wishes of the general public to announce her intention to deport asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda.

As a deterrent, this plan manifestly fails. As a policy, it is potentially illegal as it penalises asylum seekers for their method of entry, which contravenes the Refugee Convention and the anti-trafficking conventions we have signed up to, Which we helped draft when we were still a civilised nation.

This does feel like a real turning point in British politics, with the Conservative Party implementing the far right slogan of the 1970s of 'sending them back to Africa', even if they never came from there in the first place.Our treatment of people fleeing war and persecution is what colonialism and systemic racism look like in real time. The Rwanda plan is “kick them out” put into practice.

People aren't cattle. Sending them to Rwanda like this is an abomination. We must, at all costs, resist the removals to Rwanda, if we fail to do so  our country is a fucking disgrace.This is  a policy that shames our nation. There shouldn't be a difference based on nationality, We Are All Humans'. The people whose lives will be impacted  have already suffered enormously but are no different from us - they have families, hopes, aspirations. They deserve a life of safety, not a future of uncertainty and horror  

A news report on Al Jazeera last week featuring Afghan children, one of them asked why don't people care about us the way they care about Ukraine. It's hard to hear that coming from a child. We have to be able to stop this - but how do we stop this monstrous policy? It seems to have gotten past the first round of judges and the High Court has denied an injunction seeking to stop next week's planned flight of asylum seekers to Rwanda. It says that each case should be considered on an individual basis and there is no need for an injunction. Campaigners against the government's policy  say they will now take their fight to the Court of Appeal on Monday.

In the High Court, various arguments by the legal team representing the charities Detention Action, Care4Calais and the PCS Union were made hoping to block the first flight scheduled to leave on June 14, calling the plan unsafe and irrational.  According to the court submission from Raza Hussain, the barrister representing the three groups, Patel’s “assessment … that the UNHCR [Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees] is giving this plan a green light is a false claim.”

Government lawyer Mathew Gullick countered the criticisms of the UK-Rwandan arrangement.  They were “backward-looking” and did not genuinely take into account the way migrants were to be treated.  Deterring illegal immigration was a matter of “important public interest”.

Husain’s point was confirmed by a last minute intervention from the UNHCR, which argued in its submission to the court that the UK-Rwanda scheme failed to meet the standards of “legality and appropriateness” in terms of transferring asylum seekers from one state to another.  Laura Dubinsky, QC, representing the UNHCR, told the court that the agency believed there were “risks of serious irreparable harm to refugees” inherent in this “unlawful” plan.  The UK Home Office has peddled “inaccuracies” in claiming that the agency endorsed the scheme.

The court document from the UNHCR revealed “serious concerns that asylum seekers transferred from the UK to Rwanda will not have access to fair and efficient procedures for the determination of refugee status, with consequent risks of refoulement.”

Refoulement, a term Patel breezily buries when considering asylum seeker claims, remains a canonical precept of refugee law outlined in Article 33 of the 1951 UN Refugee Convention.  Contracting states have an obligation not to “expel or return (‘refouler’) a refugee in a manner whatsoever to the frontiers or territories where his [or her] life or freedom would be threatened on account of his [or her] race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.”

It wouldn’t be so bad if we were actually trying to help these poor people.It is estimated that over 70 percent of those with Rwanda notices have suffered torture or trafficking either in their home countries, or on the incredibly dangerous journeys they have made. Simply abandoning them with a one way ticket to a foreign country thousands of miles from anywhere is inhumane and an affront to the compassionate reputation which this country has proudly held.

Campaigners who brought the case have  also expressed their concern for the welfare of people set to be "forcibly deported". They had wanted to block the first flight from leaving, as well as individual people being placed on it. 

One asylum seeker - an Iranian ex-police commander who has been held at a detention centre since arriving in the UK in May - has said he fear being killed by Iranian has said he fears being killed by Iranian agents in Rwanda. he fears being killed by Iranian agents in Rwanda. He has been told he will be deported on Tuesday. 

James Wilson, deputy director of campaign group Detention Action, said it was disappointed, but added there were "some positives" from the case - noting that six of the eight original claimants had their removal orders withdrawn by the Home Office in advance of the judgement.

Clare  Moseley, founder of Care4Calais, said the charity was "deeply concerned for the welfare of people who may be forcibly deported to Rwanda, a fate that could profoundly harm their mental health and future"

Patel as expected has revealed her cruel nature and warped logic haswelcomed the decision,Boris too.At this point I remind  you of the fact that several  cabinet ministers are descended from refugees or economic migrants.  They all turn up to be photographed on Holocaust Memorial Day but had their Rwanda policy been enacted 80 years ago even more Jews would have died and and ironically  Priti Patel the chief architct of this plan wouldn’t  be here. They repulse me. They seem blithely unaware of how history will judge them. The UK is  sinking into a toxic Patel puddle of putrid slime. But in an unprecedented move even Prince Charles, the man who could become the next King  says this  plan is  "appalling."

The UK Government’s racist plans  is not the way to treat people seeking safety and sanctuary, and people need to stop saying that refugees will be sent to Rwanda for ‘processing’. The policy is to send them there forever - there is no return.  It is grotesquely cruel, immoral,shameful and orwellian.  This is people trafficking by the Government. Not in my name or many others.

People fleeing for their lives from war and persecution  should be treated with kindness not like criminals. Whatever our differences, we have to recognise our fundamental human obligation to shelter those fleeing from war and persecution, Richer nations must  acknowledge refugees for the victims they are, fleeing from wars they were unable to prevent or stop. History has shown that doing the right thing for victims of war and persecution engenders goodwill and prosperity for generations, And it fosters stablity in the long run. There are other, more humane and more effective ways to both save lives and combat people smugglers.  As compassionate people, we need to ask ourselves if an unnecessarily brutal and cruel plan like Rwanda is really what we want to do .

I have to say no,  at a time when the people of the UK have been opening their hear and homes to those fleeing Ukraine, our rotten government is choosing to act with cruelty and rip up their obligations to others fleeing war and peresecution. and urge anyone who is able, to protest against these removals, and help put pressure on airlines to drop the deportation flights. Join thousands who have emailed the airlines via Freedom from Torture: https://secure.freedomfromtorture.org/page/107146/action/1 

Write to your MP for them to intervene by using this handy tool from Bail for Immigration Detainees: https://www.biduk.org/articles/ask-your-mp-to-take-a-stand-against-deporting-refugees-to-rwanda and i please sign the following petition  as a matter of urgency and please re-share:- https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/614913

Join the week of action against the Hostile Environment from 13-20 June. There are dozens of events happening around the country next week to mark ten years of this vicious policy: https://firmcharter.org.uk/week-of-action/ 

If we act now, we can stop the Rwanda flights. And beyond this week, we must fight for an end to the hostile environment and for the rights of people to cross borders, whether it be fleeing wars, escaping poverty or simply moving closer to loved ones or building a life in a new place. Migration is a fact of life. We must work towards a world where global freedom of movement can become a reality,end this  climate of hostility .Refugees should be welcomed, everywhere. .Stop the deportations now.