EU co-ordinated deportation of Afghani refugees

I'm reposting this on  http://deleteTheBorder.org

We're trying to open this site up to be a place for information sharing for movements against borders all over the world. Please feel free to sign up for an account.

I'm an organizer with the o.r.g.a.n.i.c. collective in San Diego, California, working against the US/Mexico border. We're currently engaged in a campaign against racist vigilantes here in San Diego.

Thanks for your incredible work.

We are all victims.........

..Victims of this anti-eastern sentiment that is taking over the United Kingdom. How can Britain make a judgement to sent people back to Afghanistan when most Britons would not step foot onto Afghan soil?

What ever happened to protecting Human Rights in this country? It is well documented in history that the West has disregarded the Human Rights of 'foreigners', but now it seems that a holding British Passport does not mean that you have the right to even marry whom you choose which is unfortunately something I am discovering.

We must all stand together and help prevent the deportation of these innocent victims! It appears that Asylum is to be completely banned within the U.K. We MUST stop this from happening! I shall certainly be forwarding this article to all of my friends, please do the same.

To help with this call for action can anyone in the UK advise of:

1) Afghans in detention with removal orders
2) Knowledge of a potential carrier - Ariana airlines deny all knowledge
and suggested it wouldn't be legal
3) The most up-to-date HO statement on removals to Afghanistan

Please email details to:  liza.schuster@compas.ox.ac.uk

Full - statement below: (22 July 2005)

We the undersigned demand that the Council of the European Union and the
individual European governments involved put an immediate stop to this
expulsion.

UK

Puck de Raadt, Bail Circle (UK)
John Joseet, Catholic Bishops Conference (UK)
Collective de Soutien des Exiles de 10eme (Fr)
Joseph Oladosu, Community Legal Centre (UK)
GISTI (Fr)
JWCI (UK)
NCADC (UK)
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch (UK)
Liza Schuster, University of Oxford
Eleonore Kofman, Middlesex University
Ben Rogaly, Sussex University
Ann Pollert, London Metropolitan University

France

ANAFé (Association nationale d'assistance aux frontières pour les
étrangers -  http://www.anafe.org),
CIMADE ( http:// www.cimade.org),
Collectif de soutien des exilés (http:// www.exiles10.org),
Collectif de soutien d’urgence aux réfugiés (C’Sur – Calais,
 http://csur62.free.fr), Groupe Accueil et Solidarité (GAS -
 http://www.gas.asso.fr),
Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigrés (GISTI -
 http://www.gisti.org),
Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR -  http://www.lcr-rouge.org),
Ligue des droits de l’homme (LDH -  http://www.ldh-france.org),
Mouvement Ecologiste indépendant 62,
Parti communiste français (PCF -  http://www.pcf.fr),
Fédération Sud Éducation (  http://www.sudeducation.org),
les Verts (  http://www.les-verts.org)

Belgique

Association européenne pour la défense des droits de l'homme (AEDH -
 http://www.aedh.net)

Espagne

Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía (APDHA - www.apdha.org)

Europe should be ashamed of itself - Expulsions to Kabul

Next Monday or Tuesday a charter plane will leave London, travel to
Paris and finally land in Kabul with at least 60 young Afghans on board
who have been denied asylum by France and Britain.

The Interior Ministers of the 5 largest European countries (Germany,
Spain, France, Italy and Britain) announced at the beginning of June
that they would be organising joint charter flights to increase the
number of deportations from their countries in disregard of
international conventions and human rights.

The first destination is set to be Afghanistan. Indications are that the
expulsion will take place shortly: there has been a sharp increase of
the number of Afghans picked up and placed in detention centres and the
Afghan consul in France has been asked to confirm identities with a view
to issuing travel documents.

To choose Kabul as the first destination for these charter expulsions
one must be blind and dumb to the realities of the world and to the
failure of previous attempts to suppress irregular migration. The
situation in Kabul has never been as explosive as in the last few
months. The lethal attacks and their victims have been occurring with
breathtaking speed in the run up to the elections due to take place on
18 September of this year.

The provinces of Paktika, Uruzgan, Khôst, Badakhshan, Kounar, Helmand,
and the region of Kunduz have experienced an increase in violence. In
other provinces such as Takhar, Afghans have risen up against corrupt or
incompetent local authorities. Even in Kabul, the so-called secure
capital, a girls' school was attacked in broad daylight on 22 June by
the taliban. Furthermore today an epidemic of cholera is raging (by the
14 June 2,000 cases had been reported). On July 7, the NGO Human Rights
Watch published a report condemning the actions of warlords and
criticising the inaction of NATO forces, theoretically in charge of
maintaining security in the country.

It is incredible that the European Union is proposing to return people
who have risked their lives to find peace and security to such danger.

These collective expulsions will have serious consequences for Europe.
The symbolic value of the charters, which the governments of Europe hope
will dissuade people tempted to migrate, serve above all to shame
Europe. The images of dozens of people surrounded by dozens of European
police will resound in the countries of origin as acts of hostility to
the entire populations of those countries

These policies represent a threat to those deported, to democracy and to
relations between West and East, North and South and as such, should be
abandoned.

We the undersigned demand that the Council of the European Union and the
individual European governments involved put an immediate stop to this
expulsion.

UK

Puck de Raadt, Bail Circle (UK)
John Joseet, Catholic Bishops Conference (UK)
Collective de Soutien des Exiles de 10eme (Fr)
Joseph Oladosu, Community Legal Centre (UK)
GISTI (Fr)
JWCI (UK)
NCADC (UK)
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch (UK)
Liza Schuster, University of Oxford
Eleonore Kofman, Middlesex University
Ben Rogaly, Sussex University
Ann Pollert, London Metropolitan University

France

ANAFé (Association nationale d'assistance aux frontières pour les
étrangers -  http://www.anafe.org),
CIMADE ( http:// www.cimade.org),
Collectif de soutien des exilés (http:// www.exiles10.org),
Collectif de soutien d’urgence aux réfugiés (C’Sur – Calais,
 http://csur62.free.fr), Groupe Accueil et Solidarité (GAS -
 http://www.gas.asso.fr),
Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigrés (GISTI -
 http://www.gisti.org),
Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR -  http://www.lcr-rouge.org),
Ligue des droits de l’homme (LDH -  http://www.ldh-france.org),
Mouvement Ecologiste indépendant 62,
Parti communiste français (PCF -  http://www.pcf.fr),
Fédération Sud Éducation (  http://www.sudeducation.org),
les Verts (  http://www.les-verts.org)

Belgique

Association européenne pour la défense des droits de l'homme (AEDH -
 http://www.aedh.net)

Espagne

Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía (APDHA - www.apdha.org)

the charter left to Kabul.
source : french government
 http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/rubriques/a/a5_communiques/2005_07_27_afghanistan

are available at no-racism.net in the section deportation.class
finden sich auf no-racism.net in der rubrik deportation.class

 http://no-racism.net/rubrik/86/

On Tuesday last, 40 young men were deported to Afghanistan – 25 from France and 15 from the UK.
This message is addressed to all of those who registered their opposition to joint and collective
deportations or to this deportation in particular.

Nothing official was announced by the British government, there was no press release or press
coverage and no public condemnation from any NGO beyond what was circulated via email.
In contrast, the deportation was officially confirmed in a communiqué by the French Ministry of the
Interior, which expressed satisfaction at the cooperation between the two governments. Nicolas
Sarkhozy, the French Minister of the Interior, went on to say that further joint operations involving the G5
governments (Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) would take place in the near future (and not
just to Afghanistan).

The event was reported in the French (and Italian) press, and a demonstration has been called in Paris. A
number of organisations have publicly condemned the deportations, and have issued commentaries, pointing
out the abuse of human rights involved in these deportations, the ridiculous cost of sending almost
double the number of officials on the flight to accompany the deportees and have called on the
European institutions to put an immediate end to this policy.

It is imperative that opposition to this policy is mobilised and organised across Europe. In a way, the
choice of Afghanistan should make this easy – since it is so obviously unsafe and dangerous.
Please – consider how you could contribute to such a mobilisation. I am happy to act as a conduit for
suggestions and as a liaison between British and European groups and individuals (via
 schustlk@yahoo.co.uk please).

For those who are interested I can forward some of the above mentioned documents, and I am attaching a
translation of the French Interior Ministry's communique. Liberation today has an article on one of
the young men who were returned (who says that he has no choice - he will work, save up and return).
Liza Schuster

I am not sure where you are coming from with this article.

Things in Afghanistan are getting better and better.

Surely, free flights home for Afghanis is something to be praised rather than damned.

I agree that numerous stop overs will extend the flying time and make things uncomfortable for the passengers(but not nearly as uncomfortable as in the backs of lorries charging $3000 per person).

Is this your objection?

Please keep up the good work.

DJ Wright