UK accelerates group deportation of Pakistanis

LONDON: The British government has accelerated group deportation of Pakistanis through chartered flights with full help from Pakistani authorities which are bending over backwards to facilitate group removals.
Official figures obtained by The News show there is almost 100 percent increase in the number of Pakistanis being deported now and this percentage is sure to increase this year. Early this year, the Pakistani government assured the UK that it would accept illegal immigrants if they were removed by chartered planes.
In 2009, 1,189 Pakistanis were forcibly deported from Britain. The same year, 858 Pakistanis were refused entry at the port. In 2010, 999 Pakistanis were deported and 419 refused entry at different ports. In 2011, 1,466 Pakistanis were removed from Britain and 379 were refused entry.
The 2012 figures are staggering, as this year the Pakistani authorities literally went out of their way to issue travel documents to Pakistani immigrants to facilitate their forced removal. In this year, at least 1,861 were officially deported from Britain and 283 refused entry. The figures for this year’s first quarters are yet to be compiled but indications and news coming in suggest that an unprecedented number will be deported this year, most of them denied recourse to justice and fair hearing of their cases.
The News has learnt that the UKBA is removing illegal immigrants by hiring chartered planes. Last year, the agency spent £9 million on chartering 37 flights. Only this month, three chartered flights left for Pakistan on 5th, 13th and 16th March, taking hundreds of Pakistanis to Islamabad.
In the last five years, the agency has spent £133 million, on average £5000 on each individual, to deport them. A Pakistan High Commission, London spokesman agreed that since an MoU was signed, Pakistani immigrants had become a target.
He said since November 2011, around 15 chartered flights had taken Pakistanis immigrants to Islamabad. He said the mission had deputed an officer to visit jails and detention centers on a regular basis for the welfare and early release of prisoners.
Muhammad Tahir Ansari of Manchester-based Ansari Solicitors told The News: “The UKBA are currently obtaining travel documents on an urgent basis from the Pakistani consulates as well Pakistan High Commission in London for the individuals currently in detention centers and are in the process of detaining those whose travel documents and passports are in their custody. We are of the opinion that group removals are contrary to the obligations under Article 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998, as those detained by the UKBA would be removed by chartered planes and served with asserted letters which means any representations, or representations threatening an action in Judicial Review would affect the decision to remove unless an injunction against the removal is obtained from the court.
“To some extent, this is unfair to those who have legitimate expectations and strong grounds to remain in the UK under the Human Rights Act 1998, Article 8 as all the individuals are treated in the same manner if they have been booked on a chartered plane.”
Ansari confirmed that he will be taking the case of some of his Pakistani clients to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in order to have a fairer process of removal where people are treated individually on their cases as opposed to group removals.
The News highlighted in November 2010 that thousands of poor Pakistani immigrants are being arrested in a countrywide crackdown and this process reached a high level when the Pakistani and British governments signed an MoU which, at the first glance, was aimed at empowering authorities from both sides to curb illegal immigration, but it was proved in the following months that only Pakistanis had been particularly targeted in a systematic way while nationals from the rest of the world, with immigration issues, enjoyed liberty in the UK.