Manchester based Human Rights Organisation
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
29th March 2017
PROTESTORS PREVENT HOME OFFICE CHARTER FLIGHT FROM LEAVING UK FOR NIGERIA AND GHANA
Manchester man due to be on the flight back in detention – RAPAR
member Cisse is still here and still campaigning to remain in the UK
Protestors stopped a Home Office charter flight from leaving Stansted
Airport last night. The plane was due to fly people seeking refuge in
the UK to Nigeria and Ghana - but was prevented from leaving when 17
protestors locked themselves on to the wing of a Titan Airways charter
flight and refused to move.
The people due to be on the flight had travelled by coach to the
airport from detention centres in the UK. One of the detainees was
Abdoulaye Cisse who has been living in Manchester and attends the
Longsight Community Church of the Nazarene. Cisse is also a member of
RAPAR and volunteers with another local charity at a night shelter in
the city.
Cisse is from Ivory Coast but the Home Office claims he is from Ghana
and is trying to return him to a country that he does not know and
where he has no friends or family.
Speaking from detention, Cisse told Rev Diego Lopez of the Church of
the Nazarene that he was taken to the airport at 7pm last night. His
mobile phone sim card was taken away and he was told he could have it
back once he was in Ghana.
“They put me on a bus with a lot of people. Everyone detained had an
escort. The escort asked me questions and, when he asked me where I
was from I told him they were sending me to Ghana but I am not from
Ghana.
“Another escort came and spoke to me in French and I said I was from
Ivory Coast. He said Ghana and Ivory Coast are not too far away and
that I could take a bus to Ivory Coast.”
Cisse said it took nearly two hours to travel to Stansted Airport.
“They asked us to wait saying the flight was delayed for a little bit.
But after a while they said the flight was cancelled and they were
taking us back to the detention centre. I heard some of them saying
there was a protest.
“On the way back, they said my ticket was cancelled but I am not sure
what that means. We got back to the detention centre at 4am.”
Rev Diego Lopez said: “Cisse is a member of our church and has been an
active part of our community for over 3 years. We are saddened by the
ordeal he is been put thought and the fact that he is going to be
deported to a country which he claims is not his own and where he has
no one”.
Elizabeth Coleman, a friend of Cisse's, added: “Cisse is a good friend
and a reliable volunteer for a local charity. He is exploring and
deepening his Christian faith with the support of his church.”
The protestors who halted the flight were from End Deportations, Plane
Stupid (an environmental and social justice direct action group), and
Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants (LGSMigrants).
Dr Rhetta Moran, of RAPAR, said: “The intervention which stopped the
flight that our member Cisse was on last night reveals people in this
country who are prepared to stand together. Theresa May's government
must be stopped from scape-goating refugees who have fled to the UK
from different parts of the world because of war or famine or the
exploitation of natural resources.
“Black people who have been forced to leave their homelands and have
reached here are not criminals. It is only through unity in action
between refugees and people from the UK that we will be able to
achieve the equal human rights we all deserve.”
ENDS
For more information, contact:
RAPAR Press Officer Kath Grant 07758386208
or Dr Rhetta Moran, RAPAR, 07776264646
www.rapar.org.uk