Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Tinsley House blockade ends with arrests and deportees taken to airport

Stop Deportation | 17.03.2009 18:28 | Migration | South Coast

Nine people have been arrested under Section 69 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (failure to leave land after a warning) following this morning's blockade of Tinsley House immigration detention centre at Gatwick airport. Six of the arrestees had locked and glued themselves to the prison's gate to prevent Iraqi refugees from being taken to Stanstead airport to be forcibly deported on a special charter flight to Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, later today. All nine have been taken to Crawley police station. They are expected to be released on bail later tonight or remanded overnight and taken to court tomorrow morning.



The blockade, which lasted for over 6 hours, managed to prevent a WH Tours couch and G4S vans from leaving the detention centre. Soon after the protesters were violently removed by police, however, a coach carrying between 8 and 12 Iraqi refugees due for deportation left for Stanstead. Others were reportedly taken from Campsfield and Dover detention centres, although some had outstanding appeals and judicial reviews. At least one man won a last-minute High Court injunction and was returned to Tinsley House.

Despite today's 'sad' results, campaigners have vowed to step up their fight against collective expulsions and deportation charter flights. Rich Whitman, one of the campaign group calling itself Stop Deportation, said:

"The fact that the UK government is still refusing to ratify Protocol 4 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits collective expulsion of foreigners, is very telling about its policy on immigration. Arguing that Iraqi Kurdistan is 'safe' when people are fleeing the region everyday is just silly. Many of those who've been forcibly deported over the last year or so have been killed, committed suicide, or been imprisoned and tortured by the Kurdistan regional government or Islamist groups."

Iraqi Kurds who have been deported back to Kurdistan over the last few months, and their families in Kurdistan, have recently formed a Deportees Committee to resist forcible deportations to Kurdistan. A demonstration was held last Sunday in Sullaimaniyyia, northern Iraq, to protest against the Kurdistan regional government's complicity in EU's immigration policies. Dashti Jamal of the International Federation of Iraqi Refugees (IFIR), who was present there, said:

"These people clearly did not want to return. They had lives back there [in the UK]. Some of them had left their families behind and may not be able to see them again. Many feel unsafe and some have had to change their names or move somewhere else under very difficult conditions to survive. Surely this this is not what I would call 'safe'."


Notes:

1. Over 350 people have been deported by charter flights to Iraqi Kurdistan in the last seven months. Details of previous charter flights can be found at:
 http://csdiraq.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1&limit=5&limitstart=5
 http://csdiraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=50&Itemid=1
 http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=3208
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/mar/30/immigrationpolicy.immigration
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/12/asylum-seekers-kurds

2. The Home Office has been chartering flights from companies including Hamburg International and Czech Airlines to deport people en masse. Deportees are not told the date or time of the flight's departure. In previous flights, people have been deported before their solicitors have had a chance to appeal or submit judicial reviews. Each deportee is handcuffed and accompanied by two security guards. The total cost of the flights are unknown, though it is assumed to be significant. The Home Office constantly refuses to release such information as it may apparently be 'commercially sensitive'.

Stop Deportation
- e-mail: stopdeportation@riseup.net

Additions

Charter flight went ahead

18.03.2009 12:44

The charter flight landed in Sulaimaniyya, northern Iraq, with approximately 60 people on board. At least two people had won High Court injunctions and were taken off the flight.

All 9 arrested on the action were released on bail between 9pm and 2am. Their bail conditions include keeping away from Sussex, all UK airports (except for pre-booked flight) and all UK Border Agency facilities (detention centres, reporting centres etc.). They are due in court on March 30th.

Stop Deportation


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech