As the fantastic news was revealed that Kemi Ayinde and her family would not be being deported on Tuesday the 8th of July as planned reports also began trickling out to her supporters of Virgin Nigeria’s distinctly strange about-face on the matter.

Up until early afternoon on Monday the 7th of July Virgin Nigeria’s PR department were working overtime e-mailing Kemi’s supporters assuring them it would be in non-compliance with the UK government if it refused to take an asylum seeker out of the country when asked. In other words, they had no choice to deport this sick pregnant woman and her family [1].

This is part of the letter that many of Kemi’s supporters received from Virgin Nigeria’s ‘Customer Relations Executive’ Stella Allen:


"We empathize with Kemi Ayinde and the circumstances surrounding her migration to the United Kingdom, as recounted by your goodself, and her subsequent pending deportation there from. We have noted the suggestion proffered by your goodself regarding the manner in which VNA conducts itself in this matter and we believe same to be tantamount to non-cooperation with the Government which is inimical to the interests of all concerned parties."


We know of at least 10 variants of this e-mail, and she was sending these out until mid afternoon on Monday 7th July. The language is a bit wordy, but the implication is clear. Virgin Nigeria would carry out the deportation because it had to .

But by late Monday afternoon (a couple of hours after Kemi's solicitor lodged an application for a Judicial review to be exact, which is the real reason the deportation was cancelled) Virgin Nigeria and Virgin Unite (the fluffy charitable face of Richard Branson’s empire) were now claiming that not only were they not going to deport Kemi, Taiwa and Yasim, but they’d never intended to fly them out in the first place.

People received e-mails from Jodi Watson who is a ‘Business Mobilisation Manager’ at Virgin Unite. They all contained texts along these lines:


"I just wanted to clarify that Kemi will not be deported tomorrow on a Virgin Nigeria flight. Virgin Nigeria was approached but refused to carry her both now or in the future. It seems the story was printed without consulting Virgin Unite or Virgin Nigeria so we were not able to set the record straight".


Some campaigners also got the added bonus of having an e-mail written by Larry Agose, Virgin Nigeria’s Director of Corporate Commmunications, pasted into their reply. He claimed:


"I confirm that we were approached to carry her on our flight for tomorrow, but we declined. We also do not intend to carry her on any of our subsequent flights".


So what’s going on here? Kemi’s removal directions told her she was about to be flown out of the UK on Tuesday 8th July at 10.15am on Virgin Nigeria flight VK292 from Gatwick North Terminal. There are a number of possible explanations to this mystery, but none of them leave Virgin Nigeria or the Home Office looking particularly good.

And the lies didn't stop there. In the earlier emails Stella Allen's emails also contained the following text:


"It is pertinent to mention that we do not tolerate the inhumane treatment of any person onboard any of our flights as we ensure that all our passengers are treated with dignity and respect firmly recognizing that Asylum Seekers are not criminals but law abiding persons found to have no right or entitlement to remain in that particular country. Furthermore, Virgin Nigeria does not make any special profit from these operations and has never operated a removal flight before. We only carry passengers booked on our reservation systems".


According to this statement Virgin Nigeria has NEVER carried out a deportation (removal) before. The language, unlike the rest of the document, is pretty clear here. Well, how then do you explain flying Jumoke Adediwura and her daughters Elixabeth and Daniella (who’d been living in Birmingham) out to Lagos on Flight VK296 on Tuesday March 6th? Seems like operating a 'removal' flight to us. And what about Ronke Falode and her children who were shipped out of the UK on flight VK292 on Jan 2nd this year? Then there’s the Akwade family who were flown out by Virgin Nigeria on 30th December? And these are only those who had campaigns. Either Virgin Nigeria employees suffer from some kind of strange amnesia or they’re telling us porkie pies. But maybe Stella Allen’s new to the job. Maybe since she’s taken over as 'Customer Relations Executive', Virgin Nigeria really haven’t carried out any deportations?

If this is indeed the case then how do you explain the fact that Bridget O’Kora and daughter Osaivibie were due to be flown on a Virgin Nigeria flight out of Gatwick only three days before Kemi and family? Bridget and Osaivibie weren’t actually deported, largely because of a similar wave of letters, calls and e-mails thrown at Virgin Nigeria by their friends and supporters. Many of these campaigners were sent a remarkably familiar e-mail by the very same Stella Allen at Virgin Nigeria:


"It is pertinent to mention that we do not tolerate the inhumane treatment of any person onboard any of our flights as we ensure that all our passengers are treated with dignity and respect firmly recognizing that Asylum Seekers are not criminals but law abiding persons found to have no right or entitlement to remain in that particular country. Furthermore, Virgin Nigeria does not make any special profit from these operations and has never operated a removal flight before. We only carry passengers booked on our reservation systems"


Hmmm. Now, either Stella’s very forgetful, very very forgetful, or she’s deliberately trying to pull the wool over our eyes. We could, of course, list more examples. But you get the point.

However, despite all the evidence Virgin have still managed to spin the story in its favour and get themselves hailed as the hero of the hour in the Daily Mirror.

The headline says it all:

Virgin Airlines refuses Home Office order to fly sex slave home to Nigeria

In an earlier newswire post – indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/402900.html – we reported Virgin's rather hypocritical stance in relation to Kemi. Funding an anti-trafficking campaign organisation called STOP THE TRAFFIK (through Virgin Unite) on the one hand and being ready to deport (through Virgin Nigeria) a woman who had been brought to the UK under false pretences and forced to work as a prostitute on the other. None of this was reported. Sloppy journalism? Or just not wanting to do the dirty on their corporate pals? Rebecca Evans the journalist who wrote the article knew of the other emails but chose to ignore them. She also knew about Virgin's links with STOP THE TRAFFIK and instead chose to focus on Virgin's u-turn. What more should we expect.


Notes

1. This much is true. Airlines are required by law to carry deportees if the Home Office requires them to, with the Home Office serving on the airline directions for each person that is to be removed. However, in October 20007 XL Airways after considerable pressure from campaigners made a public statement that they would no longer be carrying out deportations because they had “sympathy for all dispossessed people in the world”. So its not impossible to refuse or have a policy of not carrying out deportations. XL did it and they're only a small Airline company. So why not Virgin, with all its corporate might?