UK govt deports scores of Nigerians, Ghanaians in single flight

The British government has deported 44 Nigerians and Ghanaians to their home countries in a single flight, The Guardian reported.

According to the report, the Nigerian and Ghanaian citizens were flown to their countries on Friday, 18 October.

Deportation flights to Nigeria and Ghana are relatively rare, the report said. Citing data obtained under the freedom of information rules, the newspaper reported that there have been only four such deportation flights since 2020. Each of such flights involved six, seven, 16 and 21 deportees respectively, until Friday’s flight, which had more than double the highest that had been removed on a single flight.

The Home Office confirmed that there is a “major surge” in immigration enforcement and returns activities.
“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,” The Guardian quoted a spokesperson for the Home Office as saying.

The Chagos Islands

The deportation came at a time when the UK immigration policy on asylum seekers is witnessing drastic changes.

After five decades of tussle, the British government recently struck a deal to eventually hand over the Chagos Islands, an archipelago that sits in the Indian Ocean, to the southeast African island country of Mauritius.

The agreement is still pending the finalisation of a treaty, but both parties have committed to completing it as swiftly as possible.

The deal saw the two governments jointly declaring the full sovereignty of the Chagos, a remote group of more than 60 islands, adding it would belong to Mauritius in exchange for guarantees that a United States military base could continue operating there for the many years to come.

A critical part of this historic agreement is 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 said to be one of the most remote places on Earth.

The Chagos Islands deal is expected to be signed next year. This explains the latest round of deportation of Nigerians and Ghanaian citizens.

Since 2021, the amount of asylum seekers arriving in Diego Garcia, a British territory in the Indian Ocean, are in the hundreds, which is minimally comparable to the tens of thousands crossing the Channel in small boats from northern France to the UK in recent years.

‘We are shocked’

The Guardian spoke with four affected Nigerians while they were held at Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick before their deportation.

The deportees included one who told the newspaper of how he became traumatised after seeing a cellmate try to kill himself.

One expressed frustrations about the Home Office refusing his asylum claims after 15 years of residing in the UK without a criminal record. Another spoke of how his claim was denied despite being a victim of trafficking and showing the Home Office officials his childhood torture scars. Another man also recounted his futile efforts to get a solicitor to challenge his removal directions.

The Guardian quoted Fizza Qureshi, the chief executive of Migrants’ Rights Network, expressing shock at the news of the deportation of the Nigerians and Ghanians, saying that the asylum seekers have not committed any crime to warrant such a treatment.

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Mr Qureshi, who was in contact with some of the people on the Nigeria/Ghana deportation flight before they left the country, 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’.”