On Monday July 25th or Tuesday 26th, young failed asylum seekers from Afghanistan will be put on a charter plane at one of the London airports. The charter will then travel to Paris, pick up more young failed asylum seekers from Afghanistan in France for onward transit to Kabul. At least 60 Afghans are expected to be on board.
Reports by Lille Indymedia tell of widespread repression in the form of mass arrests and detention of Afghani refugees since July 14th ahead of the chartered flight. According to Lille Indymedia, a significant number of Afghani refugees have attempted to flee France to seek sanctuary in England. There are also reports of a hunger strike by 51 detained Afghanis that has since been broken up by the French authorities.Expulsions to Kabul, be ashamed! | NCADC response and model letter | Deportation Alliance
Destitute asylum seekers fleeing from the French police
Calais detention centre
Coquelle detention centre
The Home Office/Interior Ministers of the G5, the 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 [ official conclusions of the G5 meeting ].
The first destination is set to be Afghanistan. Indications are that the expulsion will take place on Monday or Tuesday 25/26th July: there has been a sharp increase in the number of Afghans picked up and placed in detention centres in France. The Afghan consul in France has been asked to confirm identities with a view to issuing travel documents.
Charter DeportationsAt the moment know one knows who is operating this charter flight. There are two airlines below currently operating charter flights carrying deportees from the UK and Ireland.
[ Channel Express | Air Partner (approved service provider for deportation charters from Ireland till 2007) ]
The French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, was quoted in the guardian saying: "Our idea is simple - we think that foreigners with no right or entitlement to be in our countries should not stay. They are in breach of our laws. So we have decided to combine our political and financial efforts and organise return flights for those foreigners whose residence papers are not in order." [ Link ]
Links:
IMC UK: [ NCADC news service alert | Expulsions to Kabul, be ashamed! ]
IMC Germany: [ report | Zip FM Audio ]
IMC Lille: [ summarising feature ]
IMC Italy: [ report ]
IMC Paris: [ call for Sans Papier Solidarity Demonstration ]
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