Update on attempts to deport people to Sudan

British Airways and Gulf Air are the airlines involved, and the next deportation is set for Wednesday 4th April: Mustafa. The last attempt to deport Mustafa was from Heathrow (Gulf Air). BA were going to take Alcir.
Another update: 3 April 07 – Late last night, UK immigration authorities halted the removal of Darfuri African survivor Mohammed Abdulhadi Ali. Read more…

British Airways and Gulf Air are the airlines involved, and the next deportation is set for Wednesday 4th April: Mustafa. The last attempt to deport Mustafa was from Heathrow (Gulf Air). BA were going to take Alcir.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: 3 April 07 – Late last night, UK immigration authorities halted the removal of Darfuri African survivor Mohammed Abdulhadi Ali. The decision to halt Mohammed Abdulhadi’s removal comes ahead of judgement in HGMO, a country guidance case on Sudan, to be handed down at 10.00am tomorrow. The judgement is widely expected to go against the Home Office’s argument that internal flight from Darfur to Khartoum is a viable option for Africans fleeing ethnic cleansing in Darfur, making it much more difficult to remove Darfuris from the UK to Sudan citing sufficient safety in Khartoum

We know from another returnee to Sudan, that those who return voluntarily are treated differently to those who are deported. We are waiting to see whether anyone who returns voluntarily gets into trouble and we have arranged a system for receiving information in the hope that this never happen. In the week before the detentions there were two voluntary returns to Sudan. The men who returned voluntarily witnessed a man being deported . He was accompanied by two guards. On the flight that Alcir should have been on we have calculated that four others were not on that plane – either because Judicial Reviews prevented their removal, or, in one case, because Immigration got someone too late to the airport, and missed the flight. Mustafas’ fligh ticket was £450. so if we assume that for each person deported there is one one-way ticket for £450 and two returns at approx £1000 thats about £1500 per person. Four non returnees equals a considerable profit for BA and lots of leg room on the plane!