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It has been nearly six months since No Borders activist and gay artist Babi Badalov was deported from the UK while in the middle of lodging a fresh claim. We can now report that he is now in France where Read the rest of this entry »
Message from Bmi baby to BMI's CEO Nigel Turner 'Don't make money deporting my mummy'
At around 6pm on Dec 15th, a group of no borders activists paid Cardiff’s Winter Wonderland a visit. As the event is sponsored by Bmi baby, a subsidiary of BMI Airlines, we thought that it would be an ideal opportunity to let the people of Cardiff know about BMI’s less palatable activities and of our growing campaign against them.
By sponsoring an event like Winter Wonderland, BMI attempt to portray themselves as a caring, family-friendly company. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Not wishing to be complete kill-joys, we made the effort and dressed up for the occasion. Sporting sad baby faces, we handed out over 100 leaflets informing people of BMI’s role of carrying migrants against their will and the huge profits they make from the human misery this causes.
We were aware that we were leafleting at a family-orientated event and we were not aiming to disrupt or block anyone’s enjoyment of Winter Wonderland. However, despite no negative comments or objections raised by members of the public, we were asked to leave by someone in charge. Leaflets were then given out at the entrances outside of Winter Wonderland to passers by, but even this activity was disrupted by a security officer who told us that we had to leave the area, as the land (including the roads and pavements) in front of the City Hall was all private property! He then snatched leaflets from the hands of two activists. However, we continued giving leaflets to people and left of our own accord after about an hour of leafleting.
Information about the BMI campaign has appeared in PeaceNews, The St Petersburg Times and Pinknews.
This coming Saturday 20 December will be the third day of action against BMI Airlines. We once again call on all those who oppose the deportation industry, and the inhumane treatment of migrants who are subjected to the wider regime of control that it forms an integral part of, to contact BMI and let them know what you think of their profiteering from this cruel practice. A full list of contact details can be found on this leaflet. Being a Saturday, we suggest that callers focus on phoning the Reservations & General Enquiries numbers :01332 854854 & 01332 648181 and the Bmi baby Reservations, 01332 648181.
The shut-down BMI campaign day coincides with a day of action that has been called in solidarity with the recent uprising in Greece, which erupted following the murder of a teenager Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a police officer in Athens on 6 December. As a migrant solidarity organisation we stand with all those struggling against state repression and for freedom and equality for all!
The call out states:
Friday 12/12, the assembly of the occupied Athens Polytechnic decided to make a callout for European and global-wide actions of resistance in the memory of all assassinated youth, migrants and all those who were struggling against the lackeys of the state, Carlo Juliani; the French suburb youths; Alexandros Grigoropoulos and the countless others, all around the world, a day of international action against state murders, Saturday 20.12.2008. Our lives do not belong to the states and their assassins! The memory of the assassinated brothers and sisters, friends and comrades stays alive through our struggles! We do not forget our brothers and sisters, we do not forgive their murderers. Please translate and spread around this message for a common day of coordinated actions of resistance in as many places around the world as possible.
We are planning to again distribute leaflets about BMI’s role in deportations at Winter Wonderland on Thursday 18 December. Meet 5.30pm on the National Museum steps.
The 20th November was the second day of action against BMI, for their part in the deportation of Babi Badalov and their continued willingness to carry out removal flights for the UK Border Agency. Media coverage of the day of action was limited to NewsWales, Pink News, Indymedia and High on Rebellion.
Many people were contacting BMI because they were due to deport Jila Kalkhoran and her sons, Emad and Aref Pirouzeh on Friday, though thankfully a judical review has intervened.
Though there were some concerns over BMI’s response to phone calls, we are confident that this campaign is building momentum, we encourage everyone to organise against BMI on the 20th of each month- let them know that their involvement in deportation is not acceptable!
Before Babi was deported by BMI on 20th September his friends and supporters organised an evening to raise awareness about his campaign. Here’s some videos from that night that have recently appeared online:
Patrick Jones reading his poem, ‘DYSUNITEDNATION (for babi badalov)’
‘everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution’ article 14 of the universal declaration of human rights
in great great britain
land of hope and glory
land of the royal fairy tale story
patrol your borders obey their orders
but we spent 53 million on the dome
but close our hospitals and moan
at asylum seekers taking our money
our homes our jobs our liberty
lets lock em up before they destroy our economy
“ssssseeeeeeeeeee
we’re valleee people we aint no racists
but if they cum yer you’ll get ower fists”
in great great britainthis dysunited nation of red. white. and. blue.
of white male bigotry and children learning through
sun headlines and telegraphed lies
cameron proclaims brown denies
as refugees die in front of our eyes
as girls are stoned for falling in love
and men castrated for the forbidden touchpatrol your borders obey their orders
but we welcome hitachi aiwa toshiba and lg
we worship ronaldo nani and theire henri
yet we spit at frightened refugees
i propose that next time a politician or anybody mentions
the words detention and refugee
so casually-
i will ask them to look in my bible-
the dictionary
where they will see that refuge is the word before refugee
and detente comes before detention
so-
ignore their orders destroy all borders;
ignore their orders destroy all borders;
Lethargy performing “No Excuses” originally by Alice In Chains.
While the image of Britain as a tolerant country that welcomed migrants is a debatable one, if you read the right-wing press you might be forgiven for thinking that any welcome that did exist had disappeared altogether, and in terms of its migration regime it most definitely has. Despite increasingly draconian laws however, there are still many people who believe that somehow the UK Border regime is too tolerant and needs to ‘toughen up’. Take Paul Goddard over on The Lone Voice blog, who recently commented on Babi Badalov’s deportation:
“it is rather satisfying to see that the Immigration Agency actually do throw people out when they find their cases wanting.”
We are sad to say that the UK Border Agency (do try to keep up Paul!) carry out around 180 deportations every day – that’s a person every 8 minutes – with these often being to countries which the government knows are unsafe. Some contributors to “a lone voice” seem fully aware of the dangers people are deported into, commenting:
“Lets hope he gets killed asap back in his homeland.”
and from another
“If Babi faces execution … will the video be available on You Tube?”
Professor David Coleman
It’s quite common for advocates of “stronger borders” to be revealed as nothing more than racial supremacists. MigrationWatch, for example, possibly the foremost anti-immigration organisation in the UK was founded and is still partly run by Professor David Coleman, a long-term member and sometime office-holder of the Eugenics Society and its successor the Galton Institute (sneaky name change due to the highly discredited theory being widely recognised for the racist nonsense that it is!). Amongst other things he thinks Ethiopians should have fewer babies, and Europeans more. In a similar way MigrationWatch chairman, Sir Andrew Green, has publicly stated that
“We have no problem with immigration from Poland, which is valuable to all sides.”
but has great concerns about people from
“the distant cultures of Asia and Africa”
Sir Andrew Green
To these “balanced migration” advocates, Europeans = good, Asians and Africans = bad. Whitey is welcome, darkie has got to keep out. These outspoken voices often bemoan being labelled as racist for their views, claiming to represent mainstream opinion, or the ’silent majority’.
Our experiences as No Borders activists paints a very different picture. Even though we hold what those in government, sundry influential right-wing nuts, and their apologists in the tabloid press might consider an ‘extreme position’ on borders and migration, we have found our views usually go down pretty well with the people we meet.
We do a lot of campaigning ‘on the street’, putting our message out there and making the case for the abolition of borders and in favour of individual migrants’ campaigns to stay. And far from continually meeting with abuse from knuckle-dragging racists we’ve found that once we make our case, and explain the human stories which lie behind the faceless (and dubious) statistics trotted out by the likes of Migrationwatch, people are usually quite quick to express support for what we do.
For too long now we have allowed popular discussion of migration issues to be dominated by the unthinking right and their allies on both sides of the mainstream political spectrum: a big part of our job now has to be to get out there and put our ideas in the public domain. We have to speak to our friends, our neighbours, and those in our communities; we need to produce our own media and sometimes engage with the corporate press. If our experiences since setting up this No Borders group are anything to go by, we’ll find more support amongst the general public than the shrill and callous ranting of a lone voice might suggest.
Following the successful day of action against BMI last month, we’re calling on people to do the same again and shut down BMI on Thursday 20th November.
A CALL TO ACTION
Everyday, an average of 180 migrants are deported from the UK. That’s one person every eight minutes.
These people haven’t done anything wrong.
They are criminalised for doing what humans have done for thousands of years: moving in search of a better life. Moving to escape war, persecution, torture, physical abuse, poverty…
Governments across the world do not want us to see those being deported as people. They want to shroud them under statistics and treat them as pieces of meat.
Airline companies are a key link in the deportation industry. Without them it would be impossible for the state to implement this aspect of the migration regime and there can be no migration controls without deportations.
People being deported are often handcuffed on the flight and there have been numerous reports of physical assaults on people being deported by the security personnel who escort them.
On 20th September 2008, No Borders South Wales activist Babi Badalov was deported on a BMI flight to Azerbaijan. In an email following the deportation, BMI CEO Nigel Turner said that:
“I do not have the time or resources to investigate each case myself nor do BMI”
But BMI were given plenty of information and time to ‘investigate’. Despite hundreds of telephone calls, emails and faxes to BMI raising objections and concerns, they chose to ignore this and ensured that the deportation took place.
BMI employees told those ringing on the day that they could not refuse to carry people being removed and it was out of their control. However, other airlines have refused to carry out deportations in the past. XL Airways announced in 2007 that they would no longer carry refused asylum-seekers who were being forcibly removed from the UK.
BMI is the UK’s second largest full service airline. By taking part in deportations they do the governments dirty work for them and in the process make money from human misery. In 2007 BMI reported profits of £15.5 million. How much of this was soaked in the blood of migrants who they deported against their will?
Following the successful day of action against BMI on October the 20th, No Borders South Wales are calling for another day of action to shut down BMI on the 20th of November.
We call on BMI to no longer take part in the forced deportation of migrants.
We are focusing this campaign around the 20th day of each month, after the date that BMI took Babi away from those who loved him and those he loved.
Please contact BMI and register your disapproval at their role in deporting people to places they do not wish to go back to, for whatever the reason this may be. Urge BMI to follow the other airlines who have taken an ethical stance and who refuse to carry out any more deportations.
On 20th November let’s once again hit BMI with everything we’ve got! Ring, fax and e-mail the company as much as possible on this day and every month thereafter until BMI no longer take part in this cruel practice.
BMI flights operate from the following UK Airports:
Aberdeen, Belfast (City), Birmingham, Bristol, Durham Tees Valley, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Jersey, Leeds Bradford, London City, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, Manchester, Newcastle International, Norwich.
BMI Contact Details
Head office
Donington Hall, Castle Donington, Derby. DE74 2SB
E-mail Nigel Turner, BMI Chief Executive Officer at:
nigel.turner@flybmi.com
Switchboard
Telephone: 01332 854 000
Open Mon-Fri 8am-6pm
Customer Relations
Telephone: 01332 854 321
Fax: 01332 854 875
Open: Mon-Fri 9:30am-4:30pm
Reservations and general enquiries
Telephone: 01332 854854 & 01332 648181
Fax: 01709 314993
Opening hours: 7am-9pm
Bmi baby reservations
Telephone 01332 648181
Opening hours: 8am-8pm
For further contact details you can download the leaflet we put together for the October 20 day of action.
STOP DEPORTATIONS!
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