Six Pakistani asylum seekers detained in Yarlswood detention centre were deported last night to Islamabad, having been rounded up from round the UK and not having received proper legal support. The flight was widely publicised in Pakistan endangering the women who had often escaped from dangerous situations of domestic abuse in their native country.Due to a strong community campaign in Liverpool one asylum seeker Amina Rafique was not put on the flight. She helped 30 women inside Yarlswood self organise to go on hunger strike to protest at the lack of legal support they received having been detained.
When Amina was taken to Yarlswood on the 13th September she was told there was a 2 week wait to see a solicitor but was then told she was to be put on a charter flight to Pakistan on the 1st October.
At least four of the six women who have been deported and who are now very difficult to trace were victims of or witnesses to the sexual abuse of detainees at Yarlswood, which has been reported in the Guardian. There is now an urgent need for a full public inquiry into the abuse and for no more witnesses to fly.