Forced to land on the plane, with one knee on his head, Zoran was told he would be taken to Rwanda, no matter what. The 25-year-old Kurd, wearing a “dog-like” restraining harness, was one of the few asylum seekers who was transferred to the controversial expulsion flight before he landed at the last minute after the European judges will speak on Tuesday night. .
“I felt like I was going to die,” Zoran says. “I didn’t think anything of what had happened before.” He says he begged the security guards not to force him to board the plane. In the audio of a phone call he managed to make to a friend, Zoran can be heard screaming in pain. He says others were shouting as well.
“Officers told me that if you try to escape or flee, your situation will only get worse,” says Zoran, who arrived in Britain by boat 40 days ago after fleeing political persecution.
“I told them I didn’t want to go but I had a belt on my stomach and they handcuffed me. If I go back to Iran, the government will kill me. “
The landing of the plane was the end of a few days of political and legal drama, warrant after warrant granted to 37 asylum seekers which meant they would not be part of the flight to East Africa according to the Prime Minister’s plan to deter migrants from crossing the Channel to reach the UK.
But for the men scheduled to be on the flight from Boscombe Down, near Salisbury, it was the culmination of a day full of uncertainty, trauma and terror, and only a brief moment of respite before ministers raised the issue again. threat of deportation to Rwanda. .
‘What crime have I committed to be treated like this?’
It was around 2.30pm on Tuesday when officers knocked on the door of Mohammed’s cell at the Colbrook Removals Center near Heathrow and told him they were taking him to Rwanda, just in time. that never came.
“They used their mobile phones to translate,” says the Iranian Kurd. “I was asked, ‘Do you need a harness?’ I wrote, ‘No, I want to live among you, why should I try to hurt you?’
“It simply came to our notice then. I never saw anyone until I was on the plane. “
The 45-year-old man arrived in Britain last month after fleeing religious persecution, but is still concerned about the safety of his wife and daughters, who remain in Iran. Moments before the blow to his cell, he spoke to his wife.
“It simply came to our notice then. It was very painful, “he said.
Mohammed was taken outside the removal center and in an escort van, where he says five officers joined him: two in front and three with him in the back of the vehicle.
“I thought they would execute me,” he says of the 90-minute trip to the military aircraft test site.
Upon arrival, he says he was kept in the van for hours, with a camera recording all his movements. “I was just sitting in there,” he says. “I was not allowed to take any fresh air unless I wanted to go to the bathroom.
“I was very confused. I was thinking, ‘What crime did I commit to be treated like this?’ It was very humiliating. “
“I finally felt safe”
While Mohammed was sitting in a van waiting for his destination, so did other men removed from their cells. Taha, 36, says he was so scared when officers arrived at the detention center that he fainted.
“I couldn’t breathe, so they had to take me from the detention center on a stretcher,” he says. “I couldn’t do anything because they used handcuffs.”
The father of four, who landed off the coast of Britain on May 17 after fleeing Iraqi Kurdistan, says he was given the news that he should not board the flight just before 10 p.m.
“I urge the UK government to remove me from this detention center because I feel terrible,” he said from his cell. “I would rather choose death than be taken to Rwanda.”
Rasool, a 25-year-old Iraqi Kurd, says he felt suicidal when security forces came to take him to the airport around 5 p.m.
“It can’t be compared to death, death is better. I never thought this would happen to me, that it would take me to another country so far away from everything I know,” he recalls.
“I finally felt safe when I arrived in the UK on May 23. I knew it was a democratic country and now I know it’s a lie.”
He says he initially refused to leave the detention center and go to the airport, but was mistreated by security forces.
“They said they would take me by force if I didn’t come. Then three officers attacked me, stretching my hands and neck. I was told that if I made a move or tried to escape they would restrict me, tie me up. It reminded me of traffickers, ”he says.
The Interior Ministry says that physical force and containment should only be used after a risk assessment and that it reviews all uses of force to ensure that it is proportionate and justified, and adds: “Our staff and listening providers are rigorously trained to ensure the safety of returnees everywhere. The disposal process.”
At around 7.30pm, Rasool received a call from his lawyer telling him that he had been granted a precautionary order and that his ticket had been canceled, but the agents did not believe him and therefore for several more hours he had to sit waiting.
“At around 9.45pm, at the last moment when we were ready to board the plane, one of them came to me and told me that my flight had been canceled. I couldn’t believe it, “he says.
“I didn’t want to look back”
Shortly before, at around 9.20pm, Mohammed had been the first asylum seeker to be flown on a plane. As he approached the plane, escort agents surrounded him; one on either side and one behind. They were among many more guards involved in the operation.
He says: “There were so many more people. They wore yellow fluorescent vests. He looked like a spectator, watching.
“I did not want to look back, but I felt that other people were resisting and shouting. I heard a person say, “My hand hurts! Get away from me!”
Once all the deportees were on board, along with dozens of escorts and security personnel, they waited for about 40 minutes, the engine buzzing, according to Mohammed.
“There was a security guard on either side of me on the plane. The rows behind and in front of me were empty. I couldn’t talk to any of the others,” he said. I knew one.
“At that time I could do nothing for them but pray and I was praying for them to be strong and calm.”
Shortly before 10pm, the fateful moment arrived: a flight crew member announced that he would not take off.
“Some security guards and some were really happy. They were hugging us. They were congratulating us,” says Mohammed. “It was clear they were just trying to obey orders. It wasn’t something they were comfortable with either. “
He describes a mixture of emotions that went through him as he got off the plane: “I felt happy and relieved. I also wasn’t sure what the future holds for me.
Priti Patel addresses the Commons on Wednesday
(via Reuters)
“We couldn’t share our feelings with each other. We each felt it on our own. I would have loved to hug others, but I couldn’t.”
Forcing people to fly was “pure torture,” according to Karen Doyle of the Justice Movement, who has been in contact with some of the asylum seekers.
She says: “This is a cycle of trauma over trauma for already traumatized people who have risked everything, who have struggled through multiple obstacles and barriers to get to the UK.”
A few hours after the failed attempted deportation, Priti Patel vowed to push through the controversial plan. “We believe that we are fully complying with our national and international obligations, and preparations for our future and upcoming flights have already begun,” he told lawmakers on Wednesday.
Mohammed says: “This policy is very self-centered. We were guinea pigs, but luckily it didn’t work out.
“I can’t say I’m not worried about being sent to Rwanda yet, but I hope the support we’ve received doesn’t make it happen.”
Names have been changed to protect identities
Additional reports from Barzan Jaber