U.K. Deports Afghan Despite Court Order
A 23-year-old Afghan asylum seeker was deported to Kabul by British authorities despite a ruling by the High Court, which has ordered his return to the United Kingdom.
Samim Bigzad came to the U.K. two years ago from the Calais “Jungle” camp to look after his father, who has lived in the country for 10 years and suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Bigzad said he feared persecution by the Taliban if he were to return as he previously worked for American companies, but his asylum claim was rejected. When authorities first tried to deport him to Afghanistan last month, he became hysterical and the airline pilot refused to fly him.
The injunction against his removal was issued this week as Bigzad was in Turkey awaiting a connecting flight to Kabul. When he was still put on the plane to Afghanistan, the court ruled that the U.K. home secretary Amber Rudd was in prima facie contempt of court.
It ordered Bigzad to be brought back to the U.K. but the Guardian reports that authorities may face difficulties doing so – the emergency travel document used to send him to Afghanistan cannot now be used to return him to the U.K.
Bigzad, currently holed up in a hotel in Kabul, told the British newspaper he was “very scared.”
Migrants Stuck on Ferry for Seven Weeks
Twelve North Africans who stowed away on a Danish ferry have spent seven weeks locked in the boat as no country will allow them in.
The group, some from Morocco and Algeria, are thought to have left Turkey hoping to go to Romania, but hid on a ferry to Ukraine by mistake. Ukraine has refused to let them in and Turkey will not admit them, either.
The group have become increasingly desperate as they ferry to and from Istanbul and Odessa in a journey seemingly without end.
“There has been a tendency to violence and aggression and they have threatened to jump overboard … so there is no alternative to locking them inside the cabins,” a spokesman for ferry operator Danish DFDS told Reuters.
Europe Plans to Step up Migrant Returns
European leaders are working on plans to step up the return of migrants and failed asylum seekers from the bloc.
In his annual “State of the European Union” address on Sept. 13, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said the body will offer new proposals this month on “returns, solidarity with Africa and opening legal pathways.”
“When only 36 percent of irregular migrants are returned, it is clear we need to significantly step up our work,” he told European lawmakers, while urging E.U. countries to give more money to the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa to prevent future migration.
The E.U. Observer reported that European interior ministers met the next day to discuss ways to speed up returns and force countries to take back migrants. No discussion was scheduled on opening up pathways for people to migrate legally, the news site noted.
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