Clash point: the day-long protest blocked off the deportation mini-bus outside Lunar House
The first potential deportees under the Tory Government’s controversial Rwanda scheme were taken from a Home Office building in Croydon at the dead of night, after having arrived at Lunar House for what they had been misled to believe was a routine appointment.
And a Croydon councillor claimed that the Home Office had deliberately lied to protestors outside Lunar House on Wellesley Road in order to remove the asylum seekers into detention.
“The violence and aggression from officers was grim,” Ria Patel, a Green Party councillor for Fairfield ward, wrote just after 1.30 this morning.
A day-long protest by groups opposed to the Tory Government’s Rwanda deportation policy had gathered in Croydon yesterday, and a group is continuing its vigil today.
Yesterday, there were some scuffles and at least one protester was arrested for alleged assault.
Protest poster: the demo lasted much longer than three hours
An eye-witness told Inside Croydon: “While I was there I saw Home office try and put two refugees in a van and, but quite a few protesters sat in front of van back door and others tried to stop security guards. During the scuffle one protester was arrested for assault, although I am unsure why.
“The protest has been noisy and peaceful and the police have allowed protest to continue since no laws have been broken.”
But then, in the dead of the night, large numbers of police officers arrived around the back of the office block in several minibuses.
As one protestor recorded after the minibus left this morning, “Sadly they’ve taken our friends to detention. Late in the night vanloads of cops arrived, outnumbered us and violently pulled us back.
“We’re devastated – but we won’t stop fighting for the safety of our friends.
“How terrifying it would have been for the at least two people moved in those vans, at high speed, in the middle of the night. All for Tory political propaganda.
“This mass round-up of vulnerable people is intolerable.”
At least one of those transported away from the Home Office’s immigration centre at Lunar House was Kurdish, seeking asylum from Iran – a regime notorious for punishing minority groups.
Taking a stand: Green councillor Ria Patel supported the protests. Croydon Labour has done nothing. Again
“His three friends waited for him all evening until the cops started threatening arrests.”
These are Tory deportations on the sly.
It was reported yesterday one asylum seeker from Sudan who turned up for a routine Home Office appointment on Monday was detained and told that he was being sent to Rwanda.
They are believed to be the first potential deportation cases under the Rwanda scheme since Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s bill received royal assent.
The man said he had arrived to sign in but was informed that he would be deported to Africa.
Official figures released on Monday suggested thousands of people the government hoped to deport to Rwanda had stopped reporting to the Home Office.
The organisation SOAS Detainee Support organised a day of action at Lunar House yesterday.
According to SDS, the Sudanese man detained in Croydon is one of three people being held after attending the Lunar House immigration reporting centre. Another detainee is Afghan, it said.
A spokesperson for SDS said: “We have been in touch with three asylum seekers who were detained on Monday after attending the Lunar House immigration reporting centre. All three meet the government’s criteria for deportation to Rwanda, although none have received notices of intent yet.
“They are also from countries with high asylum grant rates. One of them reports being told by immigration enforcement staff that they were being detained in order to be deported to Rwanda.”
SDS – set up by students at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies in 2005 – offers advice and support to detainees.
Joining them in the protests yesterday was Croydon councillor Patel.
“Croydon residents were eventually told that no one was going to be taken from Lunar House tonight. This was a lie,” Patel wrote. “Apparently two people were taken.
“The violence and aggression from officers was grim.”
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