Demonstration outside UK Border Agency

Over forty people braved the wind and rain outside the UK Border Agency on Newport Road on Wednesday to protest against the first Joint EU Charter deportation flight, which went to Nigeria. We gave out 150 copies of a leaflet by Stop Deportations to Nigeria, which were well received by everyone we spoke to.

At the same time as we were holding our demonstration in Cardiff there was a protest outside the Nigeria Embassy in London called by the Campaign Against Immigration Controls and No One Is Illegal. It was good to see plenty of people from other political groups coming together to condemn the UKBA and call for freedom of movement for all. We welcome the involvement of everyone who has a problem with the highly bigoted and discriminatory practises of the border regime.

The profile of the protest was significantly raised by the revelations of former UKBA employee Louise Perrett who’s experiences show the agency to be institutionally racist. Louse will be speaking about her

Stop Deportations To Nigeria Now!

Along with our protest in Cardiff on Wednesday, at the same time there will be a protest outside the Nigerian Embassy in London. The following statement has been published by No Deportations to Nigeria and is signed by ourselves:

Yet another joint mass deportation flight to Nigeria is scheduled for 3rd February, 2010. If it went ahead, the flight will carry to Lagos dozens of refugee women, men and children from a number of EU countries, including the UK. The flight will be operated by the EU external borders agency, Frontex, and funded by the EU directly, as opposed to individual member states, under a new scheme agreed at the EU summit in Brussels last year. Unlike previous flights, which were given code numbers PVT007 and PVT008, the code number given to Wednesday’s flight is ‘JEUC’, which presumably stands for ‘Joint EU Charter’.

Hundreds of Nigerians have been forcibly deported from various EU countries over the past few years. In 2009, there were 17 joint flights to Nigeria operated by Frontex, deporting a total of 849 men and women and their dependants from Austria, Italy, Ireland, the UK and other European countries. The UK took part in four of these flights and organised two of them (one jointly with Ireland).

Many of the deportees are victim of cult and gang violence, torture, rape, female genital mutilation, armed conflict and

Protest Against Charter Flight Deportations

On Wednesday, 3rd February at 5.30pm, there will be a specially chartered deportation flight to Nigeria. At 4.30pm we will be holding a protest against this outside the UK Border Agency, General Buildings, 31-33 Newport Road, Cardiff, CF24 0AB (map).

There have been previous deportation flights to Nigeria from the UK, (we’ve protested against them before) but ‘Flight PVT-JEUC’  will be the first Joint European Union Charter, a new scheme agreed at the EU summit in Brussels last year. It will be operated by Frontex and funded by the EU, as opposed to individual member states.  In December BMI organised a flight to Afghanistan and

Stop Charter Flight Deportations Protest in Cardiff

Over twenty people gathered in central Cardiff on Wednesday to coincide with the ‘ethnic charter flight‘ that deported Nigerian families at 6pm.  There was also protests by Stop Deportation Network in London and Residents Against Racism in Dublin.

We distributed hundreds of copies of a leaflet explaining ‘ethnic charter flights’, our opposition to them and deportations in general with specific reference to Nigeria. The was no police presence and the reaction from people passing by was

Ethnic Charter Flight to Nigeria

There has been news of an ‘Ethnic Charter Flight’ to Nigeria on 29th April 2009 via Ireland. Immigration detainees have received removal directions on flight PVT007 to Dublin at 18:00 connecting with PVT008 to Lagos at 21:00.

Please join us to demonstrate against this mass forced deportation of Nigerian people:
Wednesday 29th April at 5:30pm at the Aneurin Bevan statue (Castle end of Queen Street), Cardiff.
All welcome. Bring placards and banners if you can.

‘Ethnic charter flights’ are planes booked by the UK Border Agency specifically to deport large groups of people of a particular nationality. The exact details of the flights, including where

Bolanle and her children urgently need your help

Bolanle Ojulari is a pregnant mother with children aged 2 and 4. She is currently in hospital in Swansea after being admitted with bleeding, stomach pains and being unable to keep food down.

Bolanle contaced No Borders South Wales to ask for help to stop her being forcibly deported to Nigeria on Monday 3rd November on British Airways flight 0075, Heathrow to Lagos at 13:40pm.

She wishes to fight this deportation and needs our support urgently.

Bolanle came to the UK in 2005 after fleeing Nigeria. She is from the state of Zamfara which was the first state in Nigeria to introduce strict Islamic Sharia Law in 2000. Bolanle’s father had arranged for her to be married. However, she was forced to escape from Nigeria after she became pregnant by a different man and was threatened with punishment as she was not married.

Under Zamfara Sharia Law section 126, a woman who has sex outside of marriage will be punished by 100 lashes and one year of imprisonment. If a woman commits adultery she will be sentenced to being stoned to death.

None of the family have had anti-malaria medication, which government guidelines state should be given to those travelling to this region, particularly young children and pregnant women.

What you can do to help

1) Contact British Airways using this model letter, asking that they do not take part in this removal.

• Fax: 020 8759 4314
• Email: willie.walsh@ba.com
• Reservations & general enquiries: 0844 493 0 787  (06:00-20:00 daily)
• Customer Relations: 0844 493 0 787 (Monday-Friday 08:00-18:30)

2) Raise your concern with their Passenger Medical Clearance Unit that Bolanle is not fit to fly due to health complications which meant she was recently hospitalised and the family have not had essential anti-malaria medication:

• Telephone: 020 8738 5444
• Fax: 020 8738 9644
• Email: PMCU.PMCU@BA.COM

3) Contact the Home Secretary using this model letter

• Fax: 020 8760 3132
• Telephone: 020 7035 4848
• Email: public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk