Afghan asylum seekers deported from UK may have been unaware of rights

Home Office ignores law firm’s exhortations to inform people with no legal representation of court order limiting deportation to three Afghan provinces

A private plane chartered by the UK’s Home Office landed in Kabul on Wednesday, carrying almost a dozen failed asylum seekers despite down-to-the-wire legal challenges to prevent the aircraft’s departure.

Lawyers succeeded in removing more than 60 of the asylum seekers initially scheduled to be on the flight but, according to passengers, the plane touched down carrying 11 people.

On Friday, Lord Justice Clarke of the appeal court upheld an earlier ruling to stay the deportation of people originating from all but three Afghan provinces – Kabul, Panjsher and Bamiyan.
However, at least one person from another province was returned despite the court order. Haroon Ahmadi, 39, from the volatile Laghman province, was deported after 11 years in the UK. He said he had not heard about the court decision.

Duncan Lewis Solicitors, a law firm that challenged the deportation flight on behalf of 30 clients, had tried to get the Home Office to inform all the Afghans in detention of the court order, but the Home Office refused.

“So many people on this flight were unrepresented, and if they were, they might not have been informed of the court order,” said Jamie Bell of Duncan Lewis.

However, the order leaves room for some dispute, as it forbids the removal of anyone “habitually resident” in an insecure province. It is unclear whether that terminology is meant to apply to someone like Ahmadi, whose father and brother – who picked him up at the airport – live in Kabul.

“I think the Home Office needs to inform people of their rights,” Bell said. “If he had known about the order, he would have been able to contact legal representation.”

The British government is facing mounting criticism for deporting hundreds of asylum seekers who have spent significant portions of their life in the UK.

Over the past six years, the Home Office has deported 605 Afghans who arrived in the UK as unaccompanied minors, according to a recent report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Despite Britain’s military engagement in Afghanistan, Afghan children are much more likely to be refused permanent asylum than children of other nationalities. Since 2006, only 6% of unaccompanied Afghan children have been given refugee status, compared with 15% overall, the report says.

This type of uprooting can be very damaging, said Catherine Gladwell, director of the London-based Refugee Support Network. While they enjoy protection as children, asylum-seeking minors put down roots, make friends and join football clubs. “And when they turn 18, all of that is torn apart,” she said. - Read More at the Guardian
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