Monday, October 22, 2024 - A record number of Nigerians and Ghanaians were deported to their home countries on one flight, with 44 people forcibly removed on Friday, October 18, the Home Office has confirmed.
The Home Office said that the Nigeria and Ghana deportations
were part of a “major surge” in immigration enforcement and returns, according
to the Guardian UK.
Since Labour came to power in July 3,600 people have been
returned to various countries, including about 200 to Brazil and 46 on a flight
to Vietnam and Timor Leste.
There are also regular deportation flights to Albania,
Lithuania and Romania.
Deportation flights to Nigeria and Ghana are relatively
rare, with just four recorded since 2020, according to data released under
freedom of information rules.
The previous flights had far fewer people onboard, with six,
seven, 16 and 21 respectively. Friday’s flight had more than double that number
removed on a single flight.
The deportation came as news emerged that any asylum seekers
who arrive in Diego Garcia before a treaty between the UK and Mauritius to hand
back the Chagos Islands is finalised will be sent to Saint Helena, a British
territory in the Atlantic Ocean, described as one of the most remote places on
Earth.
One of four Nigerians who spoke with the Guardian while they
were held at Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick before their
deportation tried to kill himself.
His cellmate, who witnessed the attempt, said he was “very
traumatised” by what he had seen.
A second man said: “I’ve been in the UK for 15 years as an
asylum seeker. I have no criminal record but the Home Office has refused my
claim.”
Fizza Qureshi, the CEO of Migrants’ Rights Network, who was
in contact with some of the people on the Nigeria/Ghana deportation flight
before they left the UK, said: “We are extremely shocked at the cruelty of
these deportations, especially with the speed, secrecy and the lack of access
to legal support. In the words of one detainee we spoke to before he was put on
the flight: ‘The Home Office is playing politics with people’s lives. We have
not done anything wrong other than cry for help.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have already begun
delivering a major surge in immigration enforcement and returns activity to
remove people with no right to be in the UK and ensure the rules are respected
and enforced, with over 3,600 returned in the first two months of the new
government.”
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