Shortly before they were bundled into the plane
yesterday, one of the Nigerians deported from
the UK spoke to Detained Voices, a site which
shares stories, experiences and demands made
by people held in immigration detention centres
in the UK or those who have family members or
partners in detention. Read his story after the
cut...
Basically, the charter flight is for today and
they’re trying to get us on the flight. But
here lies the problem. We all know very well,
according to the rules anyway, if they want
to take us they have to get travel
documents for all of us. But then they have
already issued travel certificates for
everybody without anybody actually signing
for it. How does that work? Obviously there
have been allegations this week against the
home office and against the Nigerian
embassy about, you know bribary, to make
sure she issues travel documents for people
without their knowledge, you understand
what I mean. According to the information
we are getting, each person gets £3000.
Basically, all of us have been sold to the
British Government to do whatever they
wants to do to us. We’ve been very calm.
We’ve asked them can you get the home
office to explain how they’ve got travel
documents for us when we didn’t sign for it.
Obviously that’s fraud because I haven’t
signed for anything. How are we supposed
to follow the rules and regulation when
those rules and regulations of the Home
Office clearly doesn’t apply to them. They
actually break the law on a regular basis.
They bribe people on a regular basis. Half of
the people on the flight today have family
here. They shouldn’t be going to Nigeria in
the first place. I left Nigeria 17 years ago,
right, I was 9 years old when I left Nigeria. I
had only really lived in Nigeria for 6 years.
And you are telling me it’s okay you can go
back there. To where? My dad passed away
last month. Who am I going back to? Who
am I going back to? My sisters here, my
brothers here. My niece has very big health
problems. She’s got heart issues. They’re in
London. She needs help on a regular basis.
My sister cannot handle it. We are just sat in
the room basically. We are waiting for the
officers to forcefully remove us. We are just
in the room waiting. Because at the end of
the day, they haven’t answered our
questions.
