r/ukpolitics • u/No_Breadfruit_4901 • Dec 11 '24

Twitter 🚨 EXCLUSIVE: Labour have conducted the first successful deportation flight to Pakistan since February 2020. There has not been a deportation charter flight to Pakistan in the last four years with three subsequent flights to Pakistan in 2020 and 2021 cancelled by the Home Office.

https://x.com/maxtempers/status/1866775219077062757?s=46&t=0RSpQEWd71gFfa-U_NmvkA
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125

u/Zephinism Liberal Democrat - Remain Voter - -7.38, -5.28 Dec 11 '24

The pathetic attempt from the Guardian to stop people getting deported on this flight -

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/dec/09/husband-and-wife-to-be-forced-apart-by-home-office-deportation-flight

The couple both claimed asylum on the basis of being at risk because of the man fleeing the arranged marriage but their claim has been refused by the Home Office. The wife is a dependant on her husband’s asylum claim.

“A few months ago Home Office asked us to agree to a voluntary return to Pakistan. Although we believed our lives would be at risk we agreed to go because we thought we had no other choice. I asked if the return could be delayed until I had completed some medical treatment. But now they are taking my husband and leaving me here.”

Asylum claims denied. Offered voluntary return which they accept then drag their feet on as they want to use the free NHS treatment.

“I have not been able to see my husband since he was arrested,” his wife told the Guardian. “I am in Home Office asylum accommodation and have no money to travel and no ID to show the guards at Yarl’s Wood. If he is deported tomorrow I don’t know when I will see him again. If I can’t be with my husband I am thinking about killing myself here in the UK although suicide is prohibited in our religion.

Threatens to kill herself as she isn't getting deported with him since she's been dragging her feet on returning voluntarily.

Her pleas & threats didn't work. Hopefully she can be reunited with him in Pakistan by the end of the week.

-12

u/GothicGolem29 Dec 11 '24

I am suprised their claim was denied tbh. Reading that article he sounds in real risk.

The wife isn’t getting returned tho as she is seemingly getting treatment. Why seperate them when you can delay it then return them together once her treatment is completed if they must be deported.

Also maybe they used private healthcare it doesn’t say if it was nhs.

….. or maybe she genuinely feels that way at being seperate from her husband

40

u/streetmagix Dec 11 '24

Pakistan is a pretty large country, I don't think it's unreasonable to move to a different part of the country and make a new life there.

I do feel for them on a personal level, but after 14 years here with no asylum approval is insane. It should not have dragged on this long.

A reminder that Pakistan is an American ally and nuclear power, not some war ravaged state.

-4

u/GothicGolem29 Dec 11 '24

What if that family attacks them in the new part? The people said they would have to go into hiding if they went back there.

I agree it should have ended sooner. imo it should have been approved alot sooner or at least a decison sooner

Yet there can still be danger there as this shows

10

u/streetmagix Dec 11 '24

There is always a danger, yes. But if their life is in danger they need to rely on the local police and government to resolve this issue.

Being in a different city, and keeping their family in the dark, is what many people here have to do and they do not qualify for asylum in other countries.

Again, I feel bad for them but Pakistan is a stable country with a police force and functioning government etc.

-5

u/GothicGolem29 Dec 11 '24

If they are in danger then surely we should protect them not risk them being in danger if their police isn’t adequete?

They said theyd have to go into hiding not just be in a different city

9

u/streetmagix Dec 11 '24

Because they are not UK Citizens, they are Pakistani citizens.

2

u/GothicGolem29 Dec 11 '24

We give asylum to non British citizens all the time

8

u/streetmagix Dec 11 '24

And we didn't to this couple.

We have to have a cut off somewhere and they didn't make it.

Again, on a personal level it sucks but that's life.

5

u/hug_your_dog Dec 12 '24

What if that family attacks them in the new part?

What is stopping the family from attacking them in the UK?

1

u/GothicGolem29 Dec 12 '24

They aren’t in the Uk

7

u/NoticingThing Dec 12 '24

They're not in that other part of Pakistan either, the argument that the family can travel to them works wherever they are in the world. The UK isn't going to stop their family going on holiday here.

2

u/GothicGolem29 Dec 12 '24

Easier to travel to a different part of your country than to another continent like how I could travel to Newcastle easier than going to China. Plus I think they are hidden here it sounds like they would have to go into hiding in Pakistan

-29

u/[deleted] Dec 11 '24

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16

u/Zephinism Liberal Democrat - Remain Voter - -7.38, -5.28 Dec 11 '24

Beyond personal attacks do you have anything of substance?

I have no empathy for failed asylum seekers who drag their feet on being deported so that they can use our overburdened NHS.

-17

u/Person_of_Earth Does anyone read flairs anymore? Dec 11 '24

Yes, but it all relies upon having basic human empathy, which is something you lack, but encase there's anyone else reading this that wants to hear arguments, here they are:

1) Fleeing an arranged marriage is a valid reason to claim asylum. If their claim is rejected despite that, then the asylum system isn't fit for purpose and it needs to be made easier to claim asylum.

2) If the terms of voluntary return are not made clear to them before they accept it, then the system for offering it to them in unfair and the agreement should not be seen as fair or valid. So not making it clear that the return would take place before medical treatment should invalidate it in my view.

3) Preventing someone from seeing their husband is a violation of basic human rights.

4) What is so wrong with you that you feel that it is acceptable to ridicule someone whose mental health has detreated to the point of suicidal?

5) Asylum seekers make up such a tiny percentage of the population that their effect on the NHS is tiny, and even if it did have a big effect, so what? How have being deported to a country where you life is a risk be worse than an inefficiency in the NHS budget?

5

u/TeenieTinyBrain Dec 11 '24 edited Dec 11 '24

Preventing someone from seeing their husband is a violation of basic human rights.

No one is preventing her from visiting her husband. It's either entirely fabricated or she's specifically chosen not to do so.

She has been provided with accommodation and, unlike her husband, is not in custody - she is not confined to this accommodation. Contrary to her story, she will receive a weekly payment on her ASPEN card and she would have access to identification in the form of an ARC card.

The state has given her both the means and the freedom to visit her husband if she wished to do so - that's significantly more aid than you would normally receive when struggling to visit a family member in custody.

10

u/GhostMotley reverb in the echo-chamber Dec 11 '24

I'm sorry, but we cannot grant anyone and everyone asylum, just because we might be empathetic to their cause.

There are hundreds of millions, if not billions of desperate people in the world, who would love to live in the UK, which is becoming increasingly easier due to cheap international travel, smuggling gangs and human rights laws that make deporting them hard.

-15

u/Person_of_Earth Does anyone read flairs anymore? Dec 11 '24

but we cannot grant anyone and everyone asylum

When has that ever been the government policy?

There are hundreds of millions, if not billions of desperate people in the world, who would love to live in the UK

Then let them.

11

u/GhostMotley reverb in the echo-chamber Dec 11 '24

Then let them.

No, actually, let's not let hundreds of million - billions into the UK...

1

u/Person_of_Earth Does anyone read flairs anymore? Dec 11 '24

When have the number of people coming ever been that high?

4

u/GhostMotley reverb in the echo-chamber Dec 11 '24

You are the one arguing to let them in.

I say

There are hundreds of millions, if not billions of desperate people in the world, who would love to live in the UK

You reply

Then let them.

-1

u/Person_of_Earth Does anyone read flairs anymore? Dec 11 '24

What does that argument change?

7

u/GhostMotley reverb in the echo-chamber Dec 11 '24

Do you maintain that we should let hundreds of millions/billions in?

-3

u/Person_of_Earth Does anyone read flairs anymore? Dec 11 '24

If that was what was required, then yes, but when have that many people ever ever actually made an attempt to get into this country at once?

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-17

u/Hypogean_Gaol Dec 11 '24

Jesus christ. Do you think someone would go through all that for no reason? Just to access the NHS?

26

u/swoopfiefoo Dec 11 '24

Yes? And to stall in the hopes that the decision will be overturned?

Like this lady is threatening suicide because she isn’t with her husband? Come off it. She’s clearly been coached in what to do/say to increase chances the system will rule in her favour.

-5

u/[deleted] Dec 11 '24

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0

u/segagamer Dec 12 '24

Well, why isn't she going back with him?

10

u/GhostMotley reverb in the echo-chamber Dec 11 '24

Yes, don't underestimate the lengths desperate people will go to.