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SCORES OF protestors are expected to gather outside immigration removal centres (IRCs) across the UK in the latest attempt to block people threatened with deportation being sent to Rwanda.
The first flight to the south-east African country was bolstered by human right’s campaigners on June 14 who slammed the Home Secretary Priti Patel’s policy as “inhumane.”
A total of 138 refugees and immigrants were removed from the plane.
After an injunction by the European Court of Human Rights, a court hearing on 5th September will decide whether a second attempt by the Home Office to fly asylum seekers to Rwanda can go ahead.
It comes after reports have already begun to surface about removal notices being handed out for those at risk of leaving the country for good.
A current detainee who is understood to have been given removal notice to Rwanda* said: “They tell me I must go to Rwanda. Believe me, if I thought Rwanda was a safe option I would have gone there. And if I thought I would be safe in my country I would go back there in an instant.”
Zita Holbourne, National Chair of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK, said: “This vile policy of targeting vulnerable people who have already had to flee for their lives and dumping them in Rwanda is inhumane and breaches international human rights laws.
“It is also racist in intent, targeting Black and Brown people, who have found themselves with no other choice but to arrive in the UK by small boats, already experiencing post traumatic stress because of the reason they had to flee and the perilous journeys they have encountered. We have a collective responsibility to resist and stand up against such systemic racism and injustice.”
Action Against Detention and Deportation, a human rights coalition including All African Women’s Group and BARAC UK, are driving the protests around the country.
Following earlier protests in July weeks after the plane was grounded, demonstrators are expected to gather on 4th September outside Colnbrook IRC near Heathrow Airport and at the Short Term Holding Facility near Manchester Airport at 3pm.
Days after the court hearing takes place, demonstrations will also take hold at the Yarl’s Wood IRC on 10th September.
The coalition has said they are committed to ending the “inherently unjust practices” of detention and deportation, and stamping out the “hostile environment” aimed towards migrants.
Women asylum seekers at risk of being sent to Rwanda plan to speak at the protest against the damaging policy which they believe targets them while fleeing rape, conflict and persecution in a desperate attempt for sanctuary.
Joseph Maggs, Coordinator of SOAS Detainee Support (SDS), said: “The Rwanda plan is the British state’s latest attempt to dehumanise and marginalise people who have fled persecution, war, poverty, climate catastrophe and other forms of life-threatening violence.
“Seeking sanctuary and a better life, the government wants to permanently expel them to a country they have never been to. This policy is a violent attack on the asylum system, an expansion of the Hostile Environment, and aims to stoke divisions in a deeply unequal society.
“Despite ongoing legal proceedings, the Home Office is reported to be planning another Rwanda flight. We stand with our migrant brothers and sisters and will not allow anyone to be deported under this brutal plan, which is rooted in Britain’s ongoing history of racism and colonialism.”
Zrinka Bralo, Chief Executive Director of Migrants Organise, said that people “have had enough” of the Home Office’s racist policies.
“The Rwanda sham is the latest cruel expansion of Britain’s Hostile Environment immigration system. It undermines the most basic principles of refugee protection. This year marks ten years since the Hostile Environment was embedded into policy, building on a colonial legacy of state racism to criminalise migrants and deny us our dignity and freedom,” she said.
“But the state’s legacy of violence is matched by our legacy of resistance. We know that when we take action together, a better world is possible. We need every person who believes in dignity and justice to take solidarity action now – there can be no bystanders in the face of this cruel, inhuman and shameful Rwanda sham.”
The Voice have approached the Home Office for comment.
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