i arrived at terminal 2 about 8;30 local time and blundered unprepared into a scene where protesters were being dragged away [no signs of provocation], tv crews blocked by airport staff from filming the event, and all told about 15 police vehicles.
i managed to hop away from the cops and get a couple of snaps with a zoom , which i'll post here if they're any good. i'm not sure what happened to the potential deportee yet.

the action is a nonviolent civil protest, organised by voices in the wilderness [as seen on 'the awful truth']trafalgar sq, mid day onwards

This news is horrible and I have not read nor heard anything about it. I work a lot with immigrants some undocumented.
I have to save on account time and write better when I have a little time to prepare. I am for Mobilization for Global Justice, Farm Aid, Amnesty International, Community Radio, and providing consistent social services over wide areas.
I read about how the UK cut Black Lung by 80%. Try to go to mining areas of the USA and find out how pervasive Black Lung is---and they blame it on smoking!

My earlier post was meant to show that smugglers should be blamed for the 58 deaths. I did notknow Tony Blair had 16,000 people deprted in 6 months costing 600 million pounds.
Yes the ties between regimes are very tragic.

This is why I advocate on working on several sides of the fence...or airport as you all experience it.

Paul Hays
Refugee and Immigrant Network
Atlanta georgia

Recently we have distributed over 3,500 health care brochures in Viet, Cinese, Korean, Lao, Spanish plus stickers and business cards to 3 states in Spanish and also worked against sweatshops, and for fair wages. We are very active through Georgia State University and 89.3 FM WRFG Radio Free Georgia.
8/21/2000 CHEERS CHEERs CHEERS CHEERIO

Amang Ghafur Thank You and Call for Solidarity in Germany

Dear Friends in the Anti-Deportation Struggle

We are writing to thank you for your tremendous show of solidarity with Amanj Gafor, the 34 year old Kurdish painter whose case has come to symbolise the inhuman and criminal treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers entering Fortress Europe.

Amanj Gafor was removed by boat from the UK on Sunday 13 August 2000 after a four and a half year struggle seeking asylum in 6 EU countries. His deportation ended a 7 month battle in the UK that saw activists stop 3 removal attempts on British Airways and Lufthansa flights.

After several corporate fines, electronic actions and fax campaigns, airlines have withdrawn from his deportation fearing for their brand image and the British government has been forced to resort to deportation by sea.

While a sea blockade was planned, in the end Amanj made a decision to go - a decision that was painfully respected by his supporters. Amanj has been ground down by the wholesale rejection in Fortress Europe, by the hard-faced and uncommpassionate governments, by the bogus solicitors that sapped his earnings without fighting, by the beatings and brutality of deportation officers and by years of imprisonment without trial in Europe’s detention centres. He has learned to say “asylum” and “goodbye” in 6 languages yet still he speaks softly and with humility.
He is now being kept in a rural refugee camp in Germany awaiting removal in the near future back to Iraqi-Kurdistan, the place he first fled for his life in 1996. Despite his treatment, Amanj has retained his dignity saying (the day before his removal from the UK), “I will not beg those who do not want me anymore, the solicitors, the goverments. I know it is not people’s wish but now I want go back and fight. I leave behind me a newfound family in the UK - those who came to visit me in detention, the trade unionists that adopted me, the many supporters that I will never know, the protesters who faced police lines and the courts for myself and others. Now, I prefer to fight and pay the price of death for my beliefs in Iraq and to stand proud in the face of tyranny rather than beg for the the human rights that Europe doesn’t offer any more.”

Not only was Amanj forced into exile after state persecution by Saddam’s Ba’ath Party when he refused to spy on his own Kurdish people, he and his family are also victims of the factional war between the Kurdish Democrat Party (KDP) and the ultra-nationalist Patriotic Unity of Kurdistan(PUK) that is raging in Iraqi-Kurdistan coutesy of US, British, Iraqi and Iranian imperialism. This so-called non-state persecution led to his father being assassinated for publicly opposing Saddam’s regime. Amanj Gafor is a man of principle. He refused to conscript into Saddam’s army. He refused to spy on his people and, ultimately, he refused to beg for asylum. When his case was brutally denied a fair trial in the High Court for fear of over-turning the Dublin Convention clause on repatriation to prior ports of entry in Europe, he continued to refuse to beg the authorities. He fought until the last moment struggling physically against his captors who bound and handcuffed him on British Airways flight BA4715. Amanj’s struggle won the compassion of the pilot and flight crew who refused to take off. Now, he has decided to leave, but on his own terms and with integrity.

As a victim of both state and non-state persecution and a victim of the “Dublin Chain Effect” - being forced to flee deportation from one European country after another, Amanj’s case uniquely exposes the horror of Fortress Europe’s border closures and the EU’s clampdown on world refugees. It exposes sharply the real agenda of the global free market - a global economy that, through its estate agents the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, wants to enforce the free flow of capital to exploit cheap labour while preventing the free flow of the people who fall foul to the poverty, civil war, famine and disease it creates.
Europe is moving towards one currency, one border and asylum-seekers are the targets of a new racism - scapegoated to divert native anger away from the governments that impoverise people in the benefit of boards of directors. Amanj, we say to you - your courageous struggle has made all of us stronger and more human. Your fight has helped nourish an international anti-racist, pro-asylum movement that will not rest until asylum is a right and until all the borders come down.
We stand united in your struggle in Germany and beyond for the decent life that is the right of all.

We write to thank the trade unionists - the engineers, the teachers, the hospital workers, the anti-racists and humanitarians, the socialists and anarchists, the church activists, the truthful media workers and to all those of principle who so unconditionally gave their support for another human being, another worker, brother, son. Your struggle has galvanised a new movement that is uniting many currents in defense of asylum-seekers and the many anonymous Amanj Gafors of Europe. We are proud of you for taking a side, for standing up for human rights and for believing people should be put before profit. You are the starting point of building a new and civilised multicultural future, a 21st century to be proud of.

Sincerely and with respect

Bristol Defend Asylum Seekers Campaign
 bdasc@hotmail.com
Box 41, Greenleaf Books, 82 Colston Street, Bristol BS1 5BB

************************************************************
To send letters or messages of support to Amanj in Germany please contact:

AMANG GHAFUR
(Ref No: 2543036-438)
LRA
Auslanderbehoerde
Obere Stadt
D-84130-Dingolfing
Germany

Stop it