Stopping The Deportation Machine
One night in March 2017, fifteen activists climbed through a hole they had cut in the perimeter fence of London Stansted Airport and attached themselves to an airplane to prevent it from taking off. The plane was about to take one of the secretive night flights that the UK government uses to deport people. This practice has been roundly condemned by campaigners and lawyers as violent, distressing, unjust, and barely legal. The group knew that a number of people due to board the plane, which was bound for West Africa, were in serious danger. During their night on the tarmac, they read messages by some of the deportees from Detained Voices, a blog that posts testimonies from people held in detention centers.