Forced removal of "failed" asylum seekers was in the headlines again last week when a couple sought sanctuary in a Glasgow church. It comes as a wave of "Voluntary Removal Notices" where people, mostly vulnerable families, are asked to report to Glasgow airport and deport themselves.
Masih and Christine Raymond had received one of those letters. It told them to go to Glasgow Airport in time for a 19:45 flight to Pakistan and reminded them that they would have to pay for any excess baggage. As Pakistani Christians in a time of increasing religious intolerance worldwide, their fear of persecution would appear to be "well-founded" but the Home Office disagreed. With nowhere else to turn, they went to St Patrick's Church in Anderston and asked for sanctuary. With support from the minister, the archbishop and media coverage, the local MP called for a 24-hour halt to their deportation (essentially meaningless, given the speed of bureaucracy, but never mind).
They are far from alone in receiving these letters, which seem to mark a tactical change on the part of the Home Office. The visible and unpopular Dawn Raids are being supplemented with these notices, first issued a couple of months ago. The link between the two isn't clear but some trends are being noticed by campaigners.
People from Turkey, Nigeria, DR Congo and Pakistan have received these letters, mostly families, often with only one adult. Those more dependent on the meagre NASS support to feed and shelter their children. They have up to 2 weeks notice of the flight and little or no information as to what happens next. Does it mean they will be dawn raided? If they go to report at Brand St as usual, will they be detained? Like the fear of dawn raids, the uncertainty can be hard to bear. Unlike dawn raids, there's not yet public outcry at the practice, allowing "mistakes" (or abuses) to go unnoticed.
In at least one case a removal notice has been wrongly issued, to someone with a still-active legal case. A family who received a notice were subjected to a dawn raid a couple of days before the flight. The letter caused someone to be locked out of their flat and lose their possessions. Yet some have missed the ordered flight only to have this ignored by Reporting Centre staff the next week. None of which points to a transparent or just regime being in place behind these letters.
The flights have mostly been from Glasgow Airport. From there to Brazzaville, Lahore, Ankara. Many flights have been booked with British Midland, Turkish Airlines and Pakistan Airlines have also appeared happy to be carrying passengers against their will. Holidaymakers might not be so happy at the airlines' attitude and might consider making their feelings known to the companies involved.
They are far from alone in receiving these letters, which seem to mark a tactical change on the part of the Home Office. The visible and unpopular Dawn Raids are being supplemented with these notices, first issued a couple of months ago. The link between the two isn't clear but some trends are being noticed by campaigners.
People from Turkey, Nigeria, DR Congo and Pakistan have received these letters, mostly families, often with only one adult. Those more dependent on the meagre NASS support to feed and shelter their children. They have up to 2 weeks notice of the flight and little or no information as to what happens next. Does it mean they will be dawn raided? If they go to report at Brand St as usual, will they be detained? Like the fear of dawn raids, the uncertainty can be hard to bear. Unlike dawn raids, there's not yet public outcry at the practice, allowing "mistakes" (or abuses) to go unnoticed.
In at least one case a removal notice has been wrongly issued, to someone with a still-active legal case. A family who received a notice were subjected to a dawn raid a couple of days before the flight. The letter caused someone to be locked out of their flat and lose their possessions. Yet some have missed the ordered flight only to have this ignored by Reporting Centre staff the next week. None of which points to a transparent or just regime being in place behind these letters.
The flights have mostly been from Glasgow Airport. From there to Brazzaville, Lahore, Ankara. Many flights have been booked with British Midland, Turkish Airlines and Pakistan Airlines have also appeared happy to be carrying passengers against their will. Holidaymakers might not be so happy at the airlines' attitude and might consider making their feelings known to the companies involved.
Comments
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Shameful
25.09.2006 09:16
Geraldine
e-mail:
g_macv@yahoo.co.uk
disgraceful
25.09.2006 18:11
anthony
e-mail:
abragger05@aol.com
Elsewhere?
26.09.2006 12:23
This almost sounds like a tactic to scare people into leaving, it would be good to know how seriously it is being taken - eg what has happened to those not taking these flights and have people been taken into detention before the date of the voluntary removal? Does anyone have reports of whether people actually have taken the voluntary removal flights?
shameful indeed
Recent news
26.09.2006 16:47
Most families have fled the safe homes they have made over the last three, four or five years instead of reporting to the airport. Despite these letters being called 'Voluntary' Removal Notices families are scared that a failure to report to the airport will result in their immediate detention.
As a result they miss their reporting times and within a short period of time - a matter of weeks - they lose their NASS benefits and have their flats sealed up.
Forcible Removals - by dawn raids and holding families in detention prior to the removal flights - are very expensive, costing on average £11,000 per family. Many fail due to incompetence by the Home Office.
This new tactic by the Home Office - of issuing voluntary removal notices - is a lot cheaper and also conveniantly means the family drop out of official statistics as once they fail to report they stop being asylum seekers.
For the cost of a letter the Home Office can really save some money and reduce the official number of asylum seekers all at the same time. (Though this tactic has no real affect on the number of people living in Britain and of course leads to real fear and extreme hardship of the families involved who in a short period of time go from being relatively secure to having to go into hiding and being made homeless and penniless.)
Those families that are brave however have found that the threat of detention is hollow. Two families last week went to report despite missing flights and found in one mother's case that she was treated exactly as usual - almost as if they hadn't realised her and her daughter and severly disabled son should have left the country the week before. The second mother was shouted at and threatened with detention but still left the reporting centre a free woman.
In another case one family sought refuge in their church and thanks to the support of their priest and the publicity they received managed to get a reprieve.
We have not heard of anyone actually reporting for the removal flight - in almost all cases, families have moved to stay with friends while waiting on their lawyers to either get judicial reviews of the removal notice (because at least one member of the family has a case outstanding still) or put in a fresh case.
Once a judicial review is applied for the removal notice is automatically suspended, and if the flight is missed as a result a new removal letter needs to be issued before teh family can be detained for removal.
We have started trying to leaflet people getting on the same flights as people being forcibly removed at Glasgow Airport (having been held in Dungavel detention centre) and this has had some effect. The removal letter will contain the flight number, date and time and you need to go to the airline's checking in desk with flyers about two hours before hand. This is something that could be extended to include families responding to these voluntary removal notices by people trying to help them.
There was an article about voluntary removals in this weeks Sunday Herald with details of how several families in Glasgow have been affected by it -
The UNITY Centre
30 Ibrox Street
Glasgow
0141 427 7992
theunitycentre [at] btconnect.com
UNITY Centre
All asylum seekers out now.
27.09.2006 11:39
Betrayed Glaswegian.
Bob MacKenzie
e-mail:
bobmac845@hotmail.com