Campaigners have urged airlines to deport asylum seekers to France as part of the UK’s controversial “one in, one out” scheme to stop facilitating “cruel and forced deportations”.
28 refugee and human rights NGOs from both sides of the Channel sent letters to the four airlines believed to be involved with the deportation flights – Air France, Titan Airways, Albastar Airlines and Corendon Airlines – urging the signatories to end what they called “shameful involvement” with the flights.
The letter called for a boycott of Air France and demanded that the other three airlines make public statements to the Home Office that they would stop boycotting people. They accused them of “collaborating in brutal and forced deportations, including of victims of torture, trafficking and modern slavery”.
Dozens of refugees were forced into France early Thursday, despite warnings that their lives were in danger from traffickers.
The expatriates went on a hunger strike on Thursday to protest their eviction. Prisoners told the Guardian they were in deep distress about their situation, with some crying and others suicidal.
A Syrian man said: “This is a prison, not a detention centre. We’ve been arrested, but we haven’t done anything wrong. The Home Office tells us we’re criminals because we came here on a small boat, but we’re not. People are in terrible conditions, they’re screaming against walls and doors.”
Another man said he was suffering from a medical problem and was told by a detention center doctor that he needed urgent surgery. I don’t know if he will be taken on the plane. “I can’t eat, drink or sleep because I’m in so much pain,” he said. Home Office sources said he was assessed as medically fit to fly.
According to the Home Office, two previous flights have been canceled so far this year, one due to “operational issues on the French side”. The deal allows an asylum seeker who arrived in the UK on a small boat and was forcibly returned to France to travel to the UK legally instead of someone else.
A peaceful protest last month before the deportation flight, which went ahead, led the Home Office and its contractors to send in riot officers and dogs and fire tear gas. UN experts warn that the scheme may violate international human rights laws.
Thursday’s deportation came after 16 asylum seekers launched a High Court legal challenge against the one-in, one-out policy. The challenge calls for the repeal of the new guideline to limit asylum seekers’ ability to have their trafficking claims re-examined.
Some of the 16 are also challenging whether France is abiding by its obligations under an international treaty designed to protect victims of trafficking.
The case was accelerated as forced evictions to France continued.
Griff Ferris, spokesman for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Migrants, said: “This deportation scheme is a sick and inhumane way to treat people who have come here seeking safety from war and violence. These are people with hopes, dreams and loved ones who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Racist deportations.”
Since removals began last September, the one-in, one-out scheme has returned less than 2% of asylum seekers who arrived in the UK on small boats, with 305 deported to France and 367 transferred to the UK.
1,528 have crossed the Channel so far this year. The relatively low number is expected to be due to adverse weather conditions.
The Home Office and the airlines have been contacted for comment.
