Stop Deportations!

An emergency protest was held in Glasgow earlier today against a planned mass deportation of Nigerian asylum seekers, set to take place on a specially charted flight overnight tonight. Among those who have been detained by the UK Border Agency over the past week are three Glasgow-based asylum seekers, including one who has been resident in the UK for nearly 30 years, and John Oguchukwu, a Glasgow University student who has been here for nine years, having come to the UK fleeing religious persecution and torture following the murder of his family in Nigeria. Friends and neighbours of John were among those at today’s demonstration.

The move to deports dozens of asylum seekers from across the UK today comes as part of a crackdown over the past few years, with hundreds deported to Nigeria. This is due to the country being given ‘white list’ status for male asylum seekers by the Home Office, meaning applications are automatically dismissed regardless of whatever evidence is provided. And in their bid to rush as many asylum applicants as possible onto one charter flight, human rights go out the window – in the case of John Oguchukwu, he has ended up on the flight due to a  bureaucratic mix-up which has denied him his right to appeal to the Supreme Court and European Court of Human Rights.

Contrary to the image that the right-wing media have managed to popularise, the fact is that the vast majority of asylum seekers are genuinely fleeing from persecution in their home country. Research has shown that most asylum seekers that arrive in Britain did not even set out with it as their planned destination – the idea that masses of refugees are pouring across the UK’s borders in order to ‘scrounge off benefits’ is simply a myth.

Those fleeing persecution and violence deserve our support and should be made welcome, not treated like criminals, rounded up and deported to an uncertain future. Refugees are welcome here!