Thread by @minnierahman

Deportations: A Thread

Next week the Home Office has chartered a flight to Jamaica, intending to deport people who have been in the UK their whole lives.

Today the #Stansted15 appeal their conviction for peacefully stopping one of these flights from occurring.

Deportations are the pinnacle of the Government's Hostile Environment agenda. The threat of deportation, detention and re-detention and immigration raids, are all tactics used by the Home Office to keep people in a state of chaos and to stop them being part of our communities.

The Home Office will argue that the people being removed are "criminals" or "FNOs". The majority will have minor criminal records - in many cases, unjust convictions. They are essentially punished twice for the same crime by being deported AFTER serving their sentences.

The detention and deportation regime is an extension of the prison system. It is run in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence. It has no oversight. There is little access to legal advice. Those in detention have less rights than those in prison. #BlackLivesMatter

The flight next week has people on it who have been here for 20+ years. They are British in everything but paper. The Home Office has a history putting people on these flights who should not be there. They oversubscribe them, away from public scrutiny and behind closed doors.

The Home Office will argue that "do-gooder" lawyers will get people off the flight. The Home Office only gives people 72 hours notice that they are on the flight. If the flights are last minute, the legal challenges are too. 72 hours to get help and/or say goodbye.

The Government committed to learning the lessons of the Windrush scandal. Not one Windrush recommendation has yet been implemented. A recommendation to stop the deportation of people who have lived here since they were children was removed. theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/f…

On top of this, the Government is deporting people mid-pandemic. The NHS is at risk, the economy is struggling, and people are dying. The focus on deportations is a mockery. This isn't about your safety or protecting the public. This is about pursuing an a political agenda.

What the #Stansted15 did was stand up for members of our communities who have family, friends and lives in the UK.

They stopped people from being removed to a country where they don't know anyone, don't have a job, may not speak the language, and have no access to support.

The Home Office cannot throw the book at people like #Stansted15 for stopping one of the most cruel and abhorrent aspects of our immigration system. Especially not under terrorism law.

Charter flights should be ended, detention should be ended.